Delusional
by Neris Verboten
Summary: Alexander/Mina - NC-17 - What if Grayson were a little bit more delusional than his screen version? What if his first encounter with Mina didn't quite go as smoothly as previously seen? Angst, sex, very dubious consent and morally reproachable behavior will abound. Only for mature readers. Dracula purists and humorless people need abstain. I hope the rest of you enjoys.
1. Chapter 1

DELUSIONAL

by Neris Verboten

_What if Grayson were a little bit more delusional than his screen version? What if his first encounter with Mina didn't quite go as smoothly as previously seen? Angst, sex and morally reproachable behavior will abound. Only for mature readers. Dracula purists and humorless people need abstain. I hope the rest of you enjoys._

Chapter I

In truth, it could be said that Josef had by far overstayed his welcome, or so Renfield fervently considered while climbing the stairs to his master's bedroom, with all the composure his bulk was affording him, in yet another of the annoying guest's all too frequent emergencies.

After being rudely awaken by ungodly screams and thumps in the middle of the night, he had hastily dressed and ordered the service staff to remain in their chambers. He then had proceeded to survey the damage: the spectacle he had faced in the hall of the mansion didn't bode well for a restful morning. The next hours were bound to be taxing, to say the least. He sighed heavily at the prospect and knocked on the door; he swiftly entered, sure to find his employer wide awake and brooding as usual at the pale moon, enveloped in one of his favorite dark red robes and lazily accommodated in a cozy armchair.

Alexander was drawn from his reverie, only to be confronted by the barely composed face of his friend, who was by now lightly perspiring, with the conjoint effort of climbing the stairs in a hurry and of willing his features to maintain the usual aplomb he prided himself to have a masterful grasp of.

"What's the matter, Reinfeld?" the afflicted man by the window almost suspired, with an evasive arching of his eyebrows and a look of quiet despair. He didn't like to be distracted at that special hour of the night, and had not fear in showing his mild annoyance at the disruption of his beloved routine.

"Sir, sorry to interrupt you, but there is a matter of a certain urgency you must attend to, at once." Renfield's whole countenance radiated resolution, mixed sagely with a pinch of contrition. "You must come downstairs now." The tone of the last sentence admitted no refusal, and so Alexander brusquely stood up, with an audible grunt and few hissed words muttered at Renfield's general direction.

With a light step, he was at the end of the staircase and faced at once with the spectacle of his old brother-in-arms, Josef Cervenka, hovering over a bundle of red stained rags, which might or might not abscond a body underneath. He got closer to see if the unmoving form on the floor was still breathing, and Josef's face illuminated with a broad – and slightly demented – smile, at the sight of his adored master. He stood straight and, still grinning, showed the precious bundle to Alexander, with a theatrical and majestic wave of both his hands.

"Master, master, look what I brought you!" he said triumphantly. His grin broadened, if that were even possible, and he stood fixated in that almost comical position – if not for the very tragic actual circumstances – waiting patiently for the praise he was expecting to receive for his selfless actions.

Grayson stood unmoving right in front of his fellow vampire, a glacial look stamped on his face. He surveyed alternatively the man and the charge with an ominous twist of disgust in the corner of his mouth. Tightening his fists and showing them in his pockets, he finally spoke. "Bloody hell, Cervenka! I told you a million times not to bring your meals in here!"

"But master, this is a gift for you…" The smile idiotically printed on Josef's face was slowly fading, replaced by a mild expression of bewilderment now. "I did it for you. Look, she's young and pretty, and I haven't touched her. See, see, this blood is not hers: I have been very careful with her," he clarified pointing at the stained sheets, almost offended now at the implication that his master had so badly misunderstood his noble intentions.

Grayson hissed furiously and sprang at Josef's unprotected and cowering body. "This is the last time you do something like this. Do you understand me?" he bellowed in his ear, seizing him brutally by the collar. "You bloody, mindless fool!" After a few moments, when he thought the lesson had had time to be properly digested, he let him go and pushed him viciously against the opposite wall.

Alexander then proceeded to survey the surroundings with a pondering expression on his face. He walked in circles a few times around the nearby table, shooting furtive glances at the body on the floor, while his spectators waited patiently for any sort of more concrete signals that sensibleness had returned to their master. Walking swiftly, he got closer again to the woman and extended a hand to remove the rags Josef had used to transport her unseen to the mansion, a resolute expression now on his face. Her soft dark hair was covering the barely detectable – but presumably delicate - features, and her clothes appeared to be of a fine making, although torn and soiled by the night's misadventures.

She was breathing lightly, but fortunately was still unconscious. 'Maybe there is a way to salvage the current situation', Alexander thought. If they could feed fast off her, they could always dispose of the body afterwards in the furnaces downstairs, if only Josef hadn't been detected by anybody in the commission of such suspicious endeavors in close and too dangerous proximity of the house.

Once an acceptable course of action had been formulated in his brain, Alexander felt more confident, and with that, hunger returned. Still hovering on the unmoving figure, he turned firmly the body and brushed the hair from her face. What he saw made him gasp audibly, with a wild-eyed and astonished expression on his face.

Renfield and Josef looked at their master in heightened bafflement, but didn't dare yet to utter a word. Grayson cradled the unconscious form in his arms, and exposed her face at the flame of the dying fire.

It was unmistakable.

With a bewildered look in his eyes, he passed a trembling hand through his hair and whispered: "Ilona…" He convulsively started shaking the unmoving body, and lastly dragged her closer to the fire, hugging her in a possessive embrace. He started sobbing into her hair.

Josef was wildly puzzled by the last actions, and didn't dare move from his spot at the opposite end of the hall, where he had found refuge after Grayson's unanticipated and wrathful outburst. Renfield, on the contrary, bravely decided something ought to be done on behalf of his half-crazed master, and silently approached the two figures pathetically lying on the floor, still intertwined.

"Sir, do you need assistance?" he proffered with a deferential but firm voice, in hopes that some form of intelligible direction was going soon to be provided by his employer. However, he was sadly disappointed by Grayson's next words.

With a voice broken with overwhelming emotion, Alexander kept repeating, as if in a trance, "Ilona has been returned to me. Ilona is here. My beloved wife has walked through the centuries and has found me. We have been reunited at last. Ilona is again with me!" Still embracing the unconscious woman, he lifted his head just enough for Renfield to see two or three solitary tears moistening a face that bared an expression which couldn't be considered anything short of delusional, in the lawyer's humble opinion. After twelve years of working for the wretched vampire, he had acquired a heightened capacity of recognizing the well-known, bright glimpse of madness that was now again dancing in Grayson's eyes; he discreetly took a few steps back, for good measure.

"That is simply not possible, sir," he dared to point out, once he had gotten himself again at a safe distance from the perplexing scene.

"What do you know? What in the name of hell do you know, eh?" the prostrate form roared in sudden fury, directed chiefly at the lawyer and at anybody else who might have dared to contradict him at this most solemn of junctures. As a way of answer, the semi-deserted hall resonated with a pointed silence. "Renfield, bring me some brandy and a wet cloth, at once. We must revive her and make her comfortable," he added with a calmer voice and a tender glance directed at the woman. The abrupt change in tone had the effect to make the lawyer move hastily towards the liquors cabinet.

Glass and cloth in hand, he returned and witnessed the delicate ministrations with which Alexander started trying to restore the woman's wellbeing. "Please, wake up, my love," he kept murmuring while gently passing the humid cloth over her forehead. At last, the woman stirred and slowly opened her eyes. She brought a hand to the back of her head and moaned in pain. She blinked once or twice and then pushed with her hands against the solid presence who was still tightly holding her.

"Who are you? Where am I? Let me go. Please let me go now!" she stressed the last words with urgency, while trying to regain an upright position.

"Don't fret, my love. I'm here for you now," Grayson dotingly assured, while standing up and extending a hand to help the woman. However, she recoiled from the lingering figure and, with a frightened look, refused to accept the offered help.

"Who are you? Answer me!" she demanded this time with a more imperious voice, while leaning towards a near chair behind her, to gather enough support and be able to stand up. Taking a few steps backward and grasping the mantelpiece for assurance, she looked at the surroundings for the first time: the majestic and richly decorated hall was barely illuminated by the dying fire, and the three figures standing at different distances from the light, were all immobile, almost as if frozen in a theatrical and nightmarish performance, whose outcome she was not yet privy to.

"Here, my dear, have some brandy. It will help you recuperate your forces," Alexander helpfully suggested, extending the glass he had taken from Renfield's hands. He kept staring at her with a look both affectionate and possessive, which only helped instilling even more fear in his counterpart. A predatory smile began curling the corners of his mouth: he got closer and sensually caressed the woman's bare neck, as if hypnotized by that fleshy expanse, pulsating and beckoning him to have again in his arms such tempting and supple figure.

The woman recoiled and fiercely shoved the man away. "I don't want your brandy! I want to go home!" she screamed, while toppling the glass to the floor with a swat of her hand.

Alexander's reaction was swift and only too predictable. After tumbling back a few steps in surprise, he threw himself at her with a growl, and grasped her neck tightly with both hands. He bared his fangs, his face contorted by sudden ferocity, and the woman screamed at the sight and fainted again in the vampire's arms. Alexander's face dripped consternation.

"Well, that made for an eventful beginning of this day", Renfield noted in a knowing voice. "What do you propose we do with her, now?"

"I cannot let her go, my friend." Grayson's voice sounded suddenly remorseful. "I cannot let her go now that I've found her."

"Maybe the sagest course of action would be to dispose of her body as fast as possible: you cannot afford to be exposed yet, and you know it. And abduction is never a good way to start the week."

"That's out of the question!" Rage filled again Alexander's words. He started shaking his head like a lunatic, while still cradling the unconscious form. "We'll have her pass the night in one of the chambers, and then she must understand she cannot leave me again. I will make her understand," he said softly, caressing the raven hair like a boy with a new kitten.

Renfield sighed almost inaudibly and followed his employer upstairs, a distinct foreboding sensation taking permanent residence inside his chest. "Maybe she will not remember what she just saw", he stated cautiously. "And in a few hours, Dr. Van Helsing can take a look at her. If she was assaulted, we just provided shelter for her, and she is bound to be confused and misremembering… I can say I found her unconscious and brought her here to the mansion. The good doctor could help us with some of his drugs, which could easily erase the more vexing memories", he dragged on under his breath, anxious to find any sort of plausible solution to the conundrum in front of him.

But Alexander had ceased to listen to his friend. The only thing the vampire was sure of, was that he didn't want her to forget him, ever, even if it meant she was going to loathe him for the actions he was now set to commit.

That was a price he was prepared to pay: Ilona was going to be part of his life again, one way or the other. She needed to remember him. He was not going to lose her this time.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II

Alexander laid down the precious charge on the bed, and resolutely closed the door on Renfield's very perplexed face. Once alone with the love of his life, he stoked the fire and closed tightly the curtains. The glooming light of the flames enhanced the flawless features of the reposing woman. She was as beautiful as he remembered her, Grayson thought with rapture.

He reverently drew closer, and caressed a rosy cheek with his coarse hand. He disrobed quickly and lay on the bed beside her. Her scent was intoxicating. He pulled at her clothes until he could unfasten the bodice, and then his wandering hand delved below, to remove the corset and lift her skirts to his pleasing.

With these last ministrations, the woman stirred and opened suddenly her eyes, a distinct expression of terror printed on the whole of her expression. "What are you doing?" she hazarded to say in a very small voice. "Please, don't touch me! Let me go... Let me go now!" she added in a frantic tone. Her chest was heaving wildly, and speaking was becoming more difficult by the minute.

The solid weight of Alexander's hands and chest was keeping her immobilized, while the vampire held close to her, caressing voluptuously one of her bare thighs, and whispered in her ear, "Don't resist me, Ilona, you know that you are mine." With these last words, he violently pushed into her and started moving frantically over the terrified body beneath. "You're my love, and you have come back to me, do you know that?" he enticed the agonizing woman with such soft, and out of place, words, while possessively holding onto her hair with a most ecstatic expression.

Silent tears were the only response the quiet room bore witness to.

He kept moving over her for what it seemed to the woman an endless amount of time, all the while whispering sweet words and interspersing his monologue with ardent kisses. At last it was over. He remained for a few moments sprawled over the tense body, breathing heavily into her ear. With a grunt, he stood up abruptly and redressed, while the woman still kept her yes tightly closed, her body now shaking with the aftermath of the violation.

"Ilona, this is our secret, do you understand that?" he whispered to the frightened creature, getting closer again and placing a reverent kiss on the rigid lips. "It's most important, for your own protection, that you don't speak of what happened here today to anybody. Do you understand? I will take care of you, but I'm worried for your own safety." He sighed in affliction. "Unfortunately, I have powerful enemies, and you cannot be associated with me in any way, until the time I get rid of the whole lot of them," he explained, shaking forlornly his head.

The woman turned on her side and burrowed her face in the pillows, her body wrecked by quiet sobs.

"Ilona, are you listening?" Alexander asked soothingly, while extending a hand to caress her curly mane. "We will be together soon, don't worry, but for now we need to act in the most cautious of ways. They will want to steal you again from me, and I will not let them again!" he added with a dreadful tone, a distressed expression now painted on his face, at the thought of such worrying eventuality.

Finally, without looking up, the woman sat on the bed and moved silently her head, as to convey acceptance, and Grayson, now satisfied with this night's outcome, smiled at her with emotion and left the chamber, after placing a delicate kiss on her trembling hand.

Four hours later, the crisp morning received Alexander impeccably dressed in a pristine white shirt and a graciously arranged black neckerchief. He paced impatiently in the drawing room, waiting for Dr. Van Helsing's arrival. At last, a distinctive ring was heard.

In big steps, Alexander was at the door, receiving the expected guest. "Ah, doctor, good that you are here. Please, come with me. We have a patient who is in need of your assistance," he added earnestly, frothing his hands with a purposeful grin.

The doctor eyed with mild suspicion the unexpectedly solicitous reception, but nonetheless, followed his host upstairs, a bemused look on his face.

Reaching the second floor, Alexander grabbed the doctor's arm, as if he were to announce a secret the deserted corridor was not allowed to hear. "I want you to treat her with the utmost of cares. She's very precious to me," he whispered with a wistful expression, pointing at a door on the far left wing.

"Who's in there?" the doctor retaliated with a mistrustful glance at the vampire's face. "What have you done now? Is she another one of your meals? What, did you have second thoughts and she's still alive? Are you saving her for your next banquet?" he added with a tinge of scorn.

Grayson sighed patiently and crossed his arms, leaning listlessly against the opposite wall. Today he was in such a good mood, that he wouldn't be riled up even by the annoying countenance of the judgmental doctor. He caressed languidly his moustache and eyed with mild amusement the increasingly agitated semblant of his counterpart.

"Van Helsing, the way in which she arrived at this house is none of your business," he stated patronizingly. "This is my personal matter. You just go inside and verify that she is well: you just tell her that Renfield rescued her from some thugs last night, and brought her here," he ordered at last , with a tone that didn't admit rebuttal.

"Why, is that what really happened?" the doctor enquired in a challenging voice. "Would she by any chance confirm this latest concoction of yours?"

"She might." Alexander smirked and held his counterpart's contemptuous stare with ease.

Nodding skeptically at Grayson's general direction, the doctor took a few steps and proceeded to knock lightly on the door; when he received no answer, he quietly slid in and gaped in astonishment at the sleeping form on the bed. He closed again the door, careful not to make any noise, and eyed Grayson with a distinct look of fury depicted on his face. "By Jove, the woman you have abducted and are keeping prisoner in your house is Mina Murray!"

"Mina Murray…That's how she goes by in this century…," repeated Alexander with a dreamy expression on his face. "That's such a beautiful name", he added with outpouring love. He stroked again his moustache with an indolent motion.

"Alexander, that's not the time for your cursed daydreaming. You always do such sort of nonsense! You cannot have her here. How did she arrive? Did you snatch her on the streets?" Van Helsing was becoming more and more infuriated by the second.

"I most certainly did not do anything of the sort!" Grayson corrected in an offended tone.

"So, am I to understand that she is half-naked and in your chambers willingly?" The doctor's voice dripped sarcasm.

It had come the time for Grayson to admit partially the truth. Diverting his stare to a far off point at the end of the corridor, he finally stated, "Not exactly. Cervenka brought her here. She was meant as a 'present' for me," Alexander clarified in a disgusted tone. "But now she is mine. You see, she's Ilona. The resemblance is uncanny. I cannot be mistaken. We have been reunited at last," he announced triumphantly, with a preoccupying grin illuminating his features. He grabbed again the doctor's arm in earnest. "Ilona is here," he stated with a ferocious and most determined grimace.

Van Helsing just shook his head in bewilderment. "Be reasonable, for heaven's sake! She's one of my colleagues' daughter. Dr. William Murray is director of Bethlehem Memorial Hospital…and a most influential person in the best circles of London. Beside, she's also my student. We cannot have her in this house one minute more. She will jeopardize everything we have worked for up until now!" He added the last words with a progressively thunderous tone, in the futile hope his associate would come back to his senses.

"Doctor, be very careful with your next words…" Alexander hissed dangerously, tightening the grip he was holding on the doctor's arm.

"We must kill her at once."

"I forbid you to lay a hand on her!"

"What do you propose, then? To have her here forever? Don't you think the secrecy will be quite impossible to maintain for long? You do have people coming and going in this palace of yours, and the service staff will certain be puzzled to have a fair lady prisoner in one of your chambers, unless you plan to chain her in the basement, together with our study subjects…"

"You misunderstand me, Van Helsing," Grayson corrected gracefully, a crafty grin on his face. "I will not retain her here one minute more than necessary. As soon as you've made sure of her wellbeing, we will have a carriage taking her home," Alexander offered with a sort of diabolical smirk.

At the unexpected words, the doctor couldn't but gape at the vampire, mystified and incredulous. "What do you mean?" he enquired in a more reasonable tone. "You cannot have her gallivanting around, after you kidnapped her! Does she know what you are?" He chuckled scornfully at the vampire, shaking wildly his head. "Alexander, please try to understand," the doctor at last thundered. "Your life will be in her hands. And so the success of our enterprise. I will not have that!"

"You forget that the decision is mine. And you're mistaken, doctor. Her life will be in my hands. I've made sure of that."

Van Helsing had the sudden urge to stab the vampire through the heart with a crucifix. It was like talking to a madman, and a very dangerous one at that. At last, he drew a heavy breath and passed a hand through his hair. "Very well, then. I will enter now and we will see how well your plan works," he added defiantly. "But at the first indication that she's uncomfortable with anything pertaining to this infernal house, or with you in particular, I 'll find a way to dispose of her, for good."

"Be my guest, I'm sure you'll find her most compliant."

The doctor threw a hard look at the stubborn vampire, understanding slowly dawning on him. By the second, the true meaning of Grayson's words was becoming clearer: the whole idea revolted the deepest fibers of his being, but his practical part recognized quickly how the solution was most advantageous, if not the best he himself could have come up with, if he had been at liberty of finishing off the woman. And it was not that he didn't care for her: Miss Mina Murray had been one of his best students and a delectable person to be around. He had her and her family in the highest esteem, but not to the point of jeopardizing the last fifteen years of his work, and the enterprise of destroying the _Ordo Draconis_, that had taken over the totality of his life.

He knocked on the door now with more decision, and swiftly entered, to find the woman stirring on the bed. She drew up the covers in an instinctive motion of modesty.

"Miss Murray, how are you doing? What a pleasure to see you today," the doctor greeted cheerfully, as if finding her in bed, her clothes disheveled, in a stranger's house, was the most natural occurrence in the world. "Mr. Grayson told me our friend Renfield rescued you from a couple of assailants last night, and had the good judgment to bring you here at the mansion. Our gracious host is the distinguished Mr. Alexander Grayson, who I'm sure you have already had the pleasure to meet." The whole sentence was delivered with perfect aplomb, as if Van Helsing had really believed each and every one of the words just proffered.

Mina merely moved her head slowly in the affirmative, a look of quiet despair and mild confusion on her face.

That was the cue for the doctor to continue with his charade. "I'll check upon you shortly, especially the bump you must have suffered to the head, but by the look of it, it seems you are in condition to return home safely. Your father must be worried to death by now, but he will be certainly pleased to know that nothing bad happened to you." He smiled at her encouragingly, hoping he wouldn't be contradicted by the woman's next words and overall attitude. He remained in silence, looking fixedly at the mystified face in front of him, as if to will her to comply with his wishes, by the mere power of his hard stare.

Mina's face paled sensibly at the recollection of the last hours in that wretched house. She was having again trouble breathing, and was slightly trembling. The good doctor remained encouragingly calm, determined to display a general air of complete obliviousness.

"Yes, yes, that's what happened," at last she lied, her voice subdued and her stare shifting uncomfortably from one place to another, but pointedly avoiding the doctor's face. "I was getting home from the University, and Jonathan sent word he was impeded from accompanying me home… So I went by myself…" Her voice faltered a little at remembering poor, nice Jonathan, her so beloved fiancé.

Jonathan Harker loved her with all his heart, she was convinced of it, and he could never know what had happened to her in that house. It was all just too shameful. Her face blanched further at the thought of her solicitous lover and of her father ever discovering what she had just become. She had been soiled and was now unworthy of anybody's love. Poor father would die if he ever knew. Or he would be killed by that beast who had just defiled her, she thought with an audible sigh. The truth would put everybody in mortal danger.

She didn't know the extent of what Jonathan would do, but most surely, he would break off the engagement, and then she was sure she wouldn't be able to bear the scandal and all the wretchedness that would accompany such disgraceful condition. No, she thought in earnest, nobody should ever learn what had passed within those cursed walls in the last lurid hours.

Van Helsing approached her, medical instruments at hand. "Miss Murray, you are not yet well: it must be that stroke you received on the head. Let me have a look, would you?" he enquired solicitously. Mina docilely let herself be examined by the good doctor, a forced and acquiescing smile now on her face.

The next hours passed in a blur. She was soon declared fit for travel by the doctor; a chambermaid had come in with a breakfast tray, and after what must have been an interminable time, another maid had helped her getting her soiled clothes in acceptable order. Somebody had assisted her to comb her hair in a presentable fashion. She hadn't been aware of descending the stairs or climbing onto the carriage that was going to bring her safely at home again.

A large, black man – the same as yesterday's nightmare, she did remember – sat beside her and accompanied her to the house. The journey was quiet, or so it appeared to her, since she wasn't able to hear anything that might have been said in the deafening agony of her frantic heart. But she distinctly felt the warm rays of the autumn sun glaring at her through the carriage's window. They seemed to have a reproving quality to them, as if they wanted to shame her further and display all her faults.

At the sight of her precious daughter, who had been inexplicably gone missing for the better part of a day, her father was frantically delighted. The Police had obviously been alerted since several hours, but to no avail, to the man's utmost consternation. Yet, the sight of his beloved only daughter, fretfully entering the hall after so many hours of anguished search, had been the most wonderful spectacle of all, to Dr. Murray's fragile heart. Hugs and kisses, and inquiries for an explanation, followed soon after. Fortunately, she didn't have to say much: the helpful giant took care of giving a believable justification for his daughter's absence, to the grateful elder man.

She heard the two men still talking, while she fled upstairs and closed ruefully her room's door behind her. She stumbled with a relieved sigh on the floor at the foot of the bed, and finally wept freely. Decidedly, nothing was not going to be ever the same. She just lowered her head, and stared absently at her old life rushing before her eyes, now forever gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter III

Grayson signaled for the carriage to stop. He sighed heavily, toying mindlessly with his cane, and instructed Renfield to get down. In few quick steps, the lawyer was able to intercept the woman now crossing the street in a hurry.

"Miss Murray, how nice to see you again," he solicitously uttered, taking his hat off and effectively blocking any way of escape for Mina, with his large bulk.

"How do you do, Mr. Reinfeld?" was the terse response he received. A hint of alarm was fleetingly visible in Mina's eyes, but in Renfield's opinion, she beautifully mastered to control every quivering fiber of her body. Today especially, he thought with a tinge of pity, she seemed to display an even more unnaturally hard expression, deforming her gentle features, and making her suddenly look older, with a sad, weary quality to the whole of her demeanor.

He eyed the woman with a gentle smile, trying to convey his sympathy for her predicament, albeit the futility of the attempt was dreadfully evident to him. His counterpart purposefully avoided his inquiring stare.

"Sorry to distract you from your errands, Miss Murray, but my employer wishes to have a word with you. He's waiting for you, if you would be so kind to accompany me to his carriage," he stated with a gesture towards the other side of the street.

"I don't have time for your employer today," she announced in a somber tone, a queasy trembling pouring unconsciously into her words.

"I have received orders to bring you to him. Please, Miss Murray, let's not have a scene in the middle of the street," he pleaded now with her in an almost beseeching voice, glancing at her entreatingly.

With the look of a trapped, frightened animal, Mina made a startled move sideways to circumvent the sizeable bulk in front of her, but Renfield was quick to grab her arm and whisper into her ear, "Please, follow me now." With a determined, tight grip dragging her on, she didn't have much choice but to walk briskly towards the carriage stationed a few feet away. Renfield opened quickly the door, and she was helped inside by a gloved hand that emerged from the obscure interior of the vehicle.

She took a seat opposite Alexander Grayson. That cursed name had had time to resonate in her mind for the last fifteen days, like a mantra, like a scourge, and always possessed the uncanny ability of provoking a decided wavering in her voice.

In a conscious effort, she willed herself to show composure in the face of everything the beast in front of her had just done to the rest of her life."Good morning, Mr. Grayson," she greeted with the last of her strength, lowering unwittingly her head and biting her lip in an ineffectual attempt to maintain a certain measure of control over her frenzied heart.

"Miss Murray, it's such a pleasure that you have accepted to see me," Alexander responded with a husky voice and a gracious grin, while indolently stroking his cane and staring at her with the most impudent look. He desired her now more than ever, after tasting her supple flesh just a fortnight ago.

"I felt I didn't have a choice, really," she answered with a brief, defiant glance, a very sad expression dancing ephemerally in the depth of her eyes.

Alexander chuckled. "Yes, I know that I have been remiss of you, but I have had to act in the most circumspect of ways." He kept languidly stroking his cane in an even, sensual motion, which for a moment was hypnotic to Mina. She couldn't help but stare at the shifting of those strong hands, strangely suggestive of the more sensuous actions she had been recently the recipient of, and she hated herself for daring to have that thought, so improper, so out of place under the circumstances.

"You look very fetching today, Miss Murray. Is that a new hat?" Grayson smiled at her endearingly, with a slight upturn of the side of his mouth.

Startled by the voice, the woman recoiled from her reverie and readily looked up. Her eyes finally met Alexander's for a mesmeric long moment. Then she lowered her gaze and started minutely trembling, burying her head further in the collar of her coat.

Alexander was apparently oblivious of the discomfort she was experiencing. He kept looking at her with a blazing stare, and seemed unable to avert his eyes from the delectable picture she was painting today, now that she was alone again and at his complete mercy. On this day especially, more than on any other occasion in which he had been following her, contenting himself with peering at her from afar, he detected a delicious new quality to her demeanor.

To his closer inspection, she shone as if polished, refined in her essence; she seemed more translucent, as if light had whitened her essence and could now penetrate her shell and make her glitter with a more reliable hue. She felt truer and brighter to him, today. And he knew he couldn't love her more than at that precise point in time: he desired this new Ilona, this fresh iteration of his lost wife, with all her demure fragility, with all her newfound, brittle delicacy, that only begged to be devoured again.

Silence was broken at last, when Grayson asked, in a nonchalant tone, "Miss Murray, have you heard of the offer I just made to your beloved fiancé?" He kept a penetrating stare fixed on the woman, as to gauge her most minute reactions. Mina felt like one of her probe subjects, mercilessly placed under a microscope for perusal, and unable to hide in that caged, suffocating space, so close to such a despicable person, who seemed not to have any mercy left for her.

Her mouth felt dry, and she was sure her cheeks were on flame. Swallowing deliberately a couple of times, she found the courage to answer. "Mr. Grayson, I only wish you would leave Jonathan and me alone. We don't want to have anything to do with you." The whole sentence was delivered in a much more demure, frightened tone than she had intended to, and again, she hated herself for it.

Alexander chortled lightly. He leisurely slid the gloves off his hands, and stroked his moustache, the corner of his mouth upturned in a complacent grin and his head cocked to one side. "That's not the answer I received from Mr. Harker. He's an ambitious young man, and was eager to come and start working for me right away. He will go places, I guarantee you that."

"Oh, I didn't know he had already accepted," Mina blurted half to herself, without thinking, the news taking her by surprise.

"Trouble in paradise, Miss Murray?" Alexander asked deviously, one eyebrow raised in feigned astonishment.

Tears were now filling up in Mina's eyes. She hadn't been more beautiful than at that point to Alexander. She summoned all the courage she had left to make a final plea. "You cannot have him work for you! Please, Mr. Grayson," she said in a wretched tone, lowering again her stare and gazing pointedly at a precise spot on her dress, "this is just too shameful…" She began weeping quietly.

"Dear Miss Murray, it seems you have a few secrets you haven't told yet your betrothed." Grayson was now positively brimming with glee.

"You're a vile, vile creature! It's outrageous what you have done to me, really beastly! And you remain there, sitting calmly and laughing at me!" Her chest was heaving wildly, while more quiet tears were shed.

Alexander extended a hand and grasped one of hers with vehemence. She didn't protest. "Please, Ilona, stop crying," he uttered in a surprisingly broken voice. "I'm not laughing at you," he said, his heart in unexpected turmoil. "You don't have to worry. This is our secret." The words coming from the odious man were strangely soothing to Mina. Maybe it was his deep tone of voice, maybe it was the electric, strong grip he was maintaining on her hand. "I won't tell anyone about us: this particular arrangement suits me just fine for now." He moved to sit beside her, suddenly crowding her space, and making breathing even more difficult for her.

His scent was assaulting her senses again, like a blanket of familiar, albeit conflicting, memories; when Grayson passed a large, heavy hand through her hair, she sighed deeply, if in fear or desire, she could not tell. She just suddenly felt bereaved of any will of her own, as if the demon now breathing on her neck had sucked away her capacity for forming a judgment. She felt naked in front of Alexander Grayson, like a blank slate he could fill at will with his own desires.

"You are my Ilona, I don't want to see you cry," he whispered in her ear.

"Please, don't call me that!"

"What do you want to be called, then?" he asked with a soothing voice, like a parent talking to a small child, pressing his body even more tightly against hers.

She couldn't answer, because in the meanwhile a sneaky hand had started insinuating itself between her legs, massaging her calf sensuously, and then pushing her skirt out of the way with a swift movement. Grayson fumbled with her undergarments in the most obscene of ways, until he could caress voluptuously her private regions. Two fingers suddenly penetrated her, and Mina gasped. Their even, repetitive motion was most pleasurable and left her without breath. Her hands tried feebly to take hold of Alexander's arms, to push him away, to impede this ulterior soiling, this further shame. But their grasp was weak and unsure. Finally, a satisfied, long moan escaped Mina's lips.

Grayson was fast to retire his wandering limb and to lower back her dress. He just stayed close to her, holding her securely with both arms, his head reposing on her wildly pounding chest. It was soothing to him to hear again his beloved Ilona's heartbeat, rhythmically fuelling every fiber of his body with the will to live again, to rebuild a life with the love of his life. For that precious moment, nothing mattered to him more than this, to have his woman reunited with him: not the Order, not the vengeance he had been so carefully planning, not even his cursed transformation into the disgusting beast he had become. He forgot, for an endless instant, everything.

He was called back to reality by a wild push from Mina, who fiercely disentangled herself from him and, collecting her books, opened the carriage door. Grayson didn't hinder her frantic moves, and just quickly signaled with his cane for Renfield to stop the coach.

In a blink of an eye, she was gone. Alexander mourned bitterly the loss of her warm flesh, a wistful glance following her receding unsteadily along the street.

Mina didn't know where she was going: she just ran with the sole aim to put as much distance as possible between her and that infernal carriage and its abominable owner. Her vision blurred, she couldn't recognize anything familiar in the surroundings. Fortunately for her, the chauffeur had been driving more or less in circles around the neighborhood she lived in, so after calming herself down to some extent, she was able to discover with relief that she was just a few blocks away from Jonathan's lodgings. She didn't know if he had already left for work, but hoped with all her forces to find him still at home. With a more determinate gait, she approached the building and flew up the stairs, her heart bouncing uncontrollably inside her chest.

Upon reaching the last floor, she tried to recompose herself: Jonathan couldn't see her in such a frantic state. Rearranging her hair and dress, she took a few deep breaths and knocked on the door.

Jonathan Harker was hasty to kiss her affectionately on the cheek, ushering her in. "What a nice surprise, Mina! I need to rush off to my new job. I was meaning to talk to you about it, but not now, I don't have the time." The whole of his demeanor was positively brimming.

Mina eyed him guardedly. "I want to talk with you too, about something very, very important." Mina's face was unquestionably serious. She just hoped Jonathan would not dismiss her next words like another flight of fancy of a nervous bride-to-be. "Why didn't you tell me you had already accepted Mr. Grayson's offer?" She minutely trembled at the utterance of that odious name, but tried to keep her composure and stared at Jonathan with an inquiring glance.

"How do you know that?" was her fiancé's startled response.

"It doesn't matter how I know. Why didn't you tell me?" she now repeated more gently.

"Oh Mina, let's not start with this again! You don't have to worry your pretty little head with such matters." He drew closer to her, to caress her face, but Mina took a step back and avoided the touch with a half-concealed grimace of annoyance and impatience. She kept staring at him with a most resolute look, tinged with a flicker of fury, for the dismissive words just used by her fiancé.

"Jonathan, you cannot accept that job! You don't know what kind of person is your new employer. He is dangerous." The last words were delivered in a subdued tone, full of sudden sadness.

"And how do you know it?" Harker lifted his eyebrows in mild surprise.

Mina's eyes shifted nervously around the room. She then looked up again, staring pointedly at Jonathan. "I just sense it. You cannot trust him. Please, Jonathan, believe me. I fear something very bad will happen if you start working with him. He's an American. Nobody knows anything of his enterprises… or of what he really is…" She gazed at him expectantly, unwilling to say anything more compromising.

"Poor silly Mina," Harker answered playfully, chuckling lightly. "You always worry too much for me. But in this you need to trust me: this is the best thing that could have happened to us!"

"Oh, Jonathan, please listen to me!"

"No, you listen to me." He walked closer and grabbed one of her hands, staring at her fixedly. "I'm going to be paid a magnificent salary. And Mr. Grayson has already provided a new, splendid house for me. For us, Mina. Now we can finally get married in a few months," he smiled sweetly at her. "And you will not need to go on with your nonsense about becoming a physician. Now I will be able to support you as you deserve," he finished with a distinct tinge of pride in his voice.

Mina paled perceptibly. "What do you mean? Is my work a hindrance to your success?"

"No, you know I didn't mean that," Harker uttered in a bothered tone, shaking his head. "But you always misunderstand me: I mean that now you can be a proper wife, without having to mix yourself in some business that is not really for your kind."

Mina's head started spinning. She had difficulty to find words for a proper retort. Too many things were jumbling around in her confused mind. Jonathan was demeaning her and her aspirations; Jonathan was going to work for the beast who had made her life a living hell, and she herself was standing there, almost paralyzed now that the last events were finally sinking in, in her fiancé's chambers, which was very, very indecorous for a proper lady, and just a few minutes after another shameful encounter with the bane of her life, with her own personal nemesis.

She felt suddenly defeated.

With an uncertain step, she went to sit down on the opposite sofa. Jonathan was beside her in a moment. "Mina, do you feel unwell?"

"No, no, don't worry," she quickly responded, a faint grin plastered on her face. She resolutely decided it was imperative to leave those quarters at once. She was suffocating and needed to breathe again at ease. That room was stifling her, and so was the judgmental presence of the man in front of her. "Sorry, Jonathan, I was being overly cautious. You are right; think nothing of what I said. Do forgive me, will you?" she quickly added, attempting with her voice and demeanor to convey acquiescence. She forced a sweet smile on her features.

Jonathan appeared easily convinced. He grinned at her and announced, "You'll see, Mina! Everything will be fine, I'm sure of it!"

Mina nodded with the most credible expression she could come up with, anxious to be rid of Jonathan and again out on the streets. After a few more assurances and pledges of eternal love, the couple quickly separated, Mina adducing a pressing engagement at the University.

Rushing down the stairs, she delighted for an instant in her newfound freedom. She breathed purposefully the morning air, as if it was the first time she had breathed at all in her life. A gripping rush filled her body: she thought with sudden clarity that this new sensation had a specific name.

It was called forlornness.

Yes, that was the word. She smiled at herself, almost childishly, satisfied to have found at last a suitable definition for her condition. She looked at herself as she would have done with a brand new specimen in her laboratory, cataloguing the symptoms, filing the effects of her disease in her analytical mind. It was liberating.

She recognized she had became a new person, since that dreadful night in which she had lain in shame with Alexander Grayson, with that fearsome creature who had changed her forever, and it had come the time to finally embrace that novel condition. It was a deformity, a sickness that now pervaded every fiber of her being; this black stain made her essentially different from anybody else in this world. She was now an abomination, a terrible blend of everything despicable, and had no right to expect to consort innocently with any other normal human being.

Poor Jonathan wanted still to marry her, but only because he couldn't see her true, appalling self. And she had tried to entrap him, with her silence. Her life had become a wicked web of lies, of subterfuges. But it had come the time to be true to herself, at least.

Walking briskly and absently towards her home, she recognized this new quality of her core self and rejoiced in the brutality of her limpid gaze. She didn't have anybody to count on for help, for support, not even Jonathan, especially not Jonathan, and she didn't deserve anybody, because she had become a monster.

She laughed a little crazily at the thought to have to walk this dreadful existence devoid of the comfort of gentle words and caring persons, but she wasn't worthy of anything better.

At that moment, she decided to marry her Jonathan. The thought came to her in a crystal-clear fashion. He didn't really love her, and wanted to cage her in the life he had prepared for her; he despised her a little, and mocked her every attempt at betterment. He mistrusted and belittled her capacity of reasoning, and thought of her like a pretty toy to decorate his new house, his new station in life.

But she was no better. She had lied and deceived everybody in these last frightful days. So she deserved Jonathan's contempt, even though he was never to learn the real reasons for his justified disdain.

He was going to be her penance, she decided fatalistically, and she was going to be his. She would marry Jonathan and they would live together, unhappily ever after.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter IV

Two weeks had passed, and Jonathan Harker had had time to make very many influential friends, on account of his advantageous position as Alexander Grayson's brand new right hand. Life couldn't have been sweeter, he thought cockily, while climbing the stairs of the magnificent theater, in company of his beautiful fiancé. His employer was always very munificent, and had presented him with tickets for the season's premiere.

Mina seemed strangely mournful tonight, but Harker adduced the coy behavior to the fact she had still to get accustomed to the new lifestyle he could now afford for the both of them. He complimented the new dress he had just bought for her, and together they walked leisurely towards their box.

Mina took a seat and graciously nodded in recognition at Lady Jayne Wetherby, seating in a nearby box; she was one of the new influential friends Jonathan had acquired in the upper circle he was frequenting now.

The function started, but Mina couldn't concentrate on the music: for interminable days, her mind had been trapped in an endless loop of regrets, crushed hopes, desolation and ever-vivid embarrassment. Even after she had made up her mind to spend the rest of her life with Jonathan, the decision hadn't conferred her calm, but more agitation. A part of her mind kept fixating on the very true fact that she couldn't really go through with the whole charade; she couldn't be so wicked as to ruin Jonathan's life just out of spite, because he didn't seem to appreciate the whole lot of qualities she once had been so sure of possessing.

But in this last month, she had come to reconsider almost everything she had believed about herself, her character, her inner strengths and weaknesses. When she looked at herself in the mirror every morning, she couldn't recognize anymore the creature that stared back at her in the reflection. She was lost, she was weak, and she was becoming more and more despondent and irritable, with every passing day. Poor father was very preoccupied with her, and Dr. Van Helsing had scolded her fiercely for missing the last important examination. She couldn't manage to care.

Her gloomy musings were interrupted when she glanced at a familiar, yet unnerving, presence in Lady Wetherby's box. She blanched at the unexpected sight of Alexander Grayson, casually taking a seat very close to Lady Jayne. She remained transfixed for a moment, incapable of averting her eyes. They seemed intimate: he was now whispering something into her ear, and she was smiling knowingly.

The whole picture was surprisingly very upsetting to Mina, although she couldn't exactly tell why. Grayson had now passed an arm around the woman's shoulders, and Lady Jayne was giggling. They finally passionately kissed, and Alexander looked up to stare directly at Mina, clearly sure that, because of the seats he had procured them, she was able to distinctly see everything that was going on in that semi-dark environment. Mina lowered immediately her gaze in embarrassment, while the couple kept on with their passionate romp.

The sensation she experienced as a sudden shock to her nerves, was painfully akin to betrayal.

She cursed at herself with all her might: her reaction was unbelievably ridiculous, she thought miserably. Her mind was not making sense anymore. To feel betrayed by the man who had abused of her, who had violently taken her, who had been stalking her and violated her again and again, was certainly a new form of indecency on her part, even for a person in the frail mental state Mina honestly recognized herself to be.

She basked for a deliciously masochistic moment in the depths of her own admitted abjection. It was not as if Grayson was her own 'exclusive' defiler, and couldn't consort with anybody else, she thought a little crazily, giggling to herself. Jonathan gave her a questioning look, and she quickly quietened down. She kept thinking about the vexing picture that Alexander Grayson was painting at that moment: she was sure, now that she had seen him in action, so to speak, that his life must have been very busy indeed with the debasing and corrupting of a different woman each night, as it would befit the monstrous beast that he was.

She was not special, she was not unique, after all, not even in her newfound, scalding brand of dishonor. A mournful, distorted smile appeared on her lips.

The function was soon over, or so it seemed to Mina, who hadn't been able to listen to a word of it. Grayson had left Lady Jayne's box at the intermission, and Mina had kept staring at the now empty chair like an automaton. After feigning unwellness, she had declined the offer to join her fiancé and his new acquaintances to dine, and Jonathan accompanied her home, with promises to meet each other the day after for another romantic escapade. She had nodded absentmindedly.

The subsequent night, she abruptly decided she didn't want to be found by Jonathan after all, and so arranged a soirée with her longtime friend, Lucy Westenra. The best thing about little, bright, overwhelmingly wealthy Lucy was that she was always up for a bit of fun, and she knew of the trendiest, sometimes most scandalous places. She wasn't afraid of anything, and that night Mina decided she would follow her anywhere, whatever the seediness of the place Lucy would choose for their unorthodox bit of adventure.

After few hours, the two women found themselves drinking merrily in a disreputable club in one of the worst parts of the city. Mina hadn't wanted to be able to think anymore, and it seemed for a while she would skillfully achieve her goal for the night. They had soon become the main attraction among the gentlemen, and the not so gentlemanly fellows who were circulating there, for their out of place dresses, well above the general level of the habitual clientele, and for their overly merry behavior.

But Mina was sure she had overdone herself this time. She was not accustomed to so much drinking, and the raucous behavior of the patrons didn't help improve her state. She felt she had made a terrible mistake in following Lucy: she didn't want to see people, she couldn't bear all that frenzied attitude, that almost compulsory search for fun.

The alcoholic intake made her abruptly even more somber, and so out of place for the jollity around her. Stumbling slightly, she went to lie down on one of the back sofas, in one of the dark recesses of the joint, and was followed by a man who had been eyeing her since her entrance to the club. She felt queasy and couldn't keep her eyes open, but she gasped in terror when the stranger pushed against her and forcefully sought to steal a kiss, his breath heavy of alcohol.

Mina tried to shove the intruder away with all her forces, but to no avail; he had now torn her blouse and had thrust a hand over her breasts. Gasping for air, she attempted to restrain those skulking hands with feeble, uncoordinated movements.

Then, in a swift motion, the weight of the man was suddenly lifted from her, and she heard him stumbling and crashing with force on the opposite wall. Her head spinning, she looked up, only to see Alexander Grayson, the ever-present bane of her dreams and of her waking life, staring at the man with ferocity. He then approached Mina, extending a hand to help her get up. She was inexplicably grateful to see him again, albeit she wasn't exactly sure if she was hallucinating him again, or not.

"Miss Murray, maybe a little of fresh air will do you good," he said, while expediently escorting her to the nearest exit, towards a semi-secluded terrace on the furthest back of the club.

She was only acutely aware of Grayson's strong grip on her arm, while she followed unsteadily the man outside. Giggling senselessly, she stumbled and crashed almost delicately on the floor against the banister. She then looked up at Alexander with a puzzled expression.

Drawling her words, she inquired, "Oh, Mr. Grayson, what are you doing here?" her tone tinged with merriment, wildly out of place in her actual condition and with the sad look that was dancing in her eyes. She looked down at her garments, and tried to clumsily re-fasten the torn blouse. Pitifully failing in her attempt, she wistfully crossed her arms across her chest and uttered, "I'm such a spectacle today, am I not?" She appeared to Grayson a little mournful in all her inebriated gaiety. "Maybe in this state you will like me a little better than your Lady Wetherby, will you not?" she inquired boldly. Her head was reeling, and a recondite part of her mind was clearly shouting its discontent at such preposterous behavior. She decided not to listen, and grinned coquettishly and a little dementedly at Alexander.

"Oh, Ilona, you know that you are my only true wife."

"So, what's Lady Jayne instead? Your alternate wife on the side?"She grinned inanely at her own apparent wit.

Alexander stared at her with a piercing look. "Lady Jayne is work. She's nothing to me. She's just work."

"What kind of work?" She peered at his face inquiringly.

"You wouldn't understand."

Mina chuckled mirthlessly, shaking her head in self-abasement. "Yes, I know. Jonathan already told me that. I wouldn't understand anything. I'm not fit to understand. It apparently has to do with my gender." She seemed suddenly distressed to Alexander, to his utmost chagrin.

He tried to correct himself. "It's not that. I cannot tell you yet. It's very complicated and dangerous, Ilona," he clarified with a sorrowful tinge in his voice.

She stood up and turned, fleetingly intent on looking at the spectacular view of the city. "It's a breathtaking sight," she asserted to herself, momentarily oblivious of anybody else around her. She inhaled sharply, as if wishing to be awakened by the fresh air from the slumber she had been trapped in during the last weeks.

Alexander drew closer behind her and tightly embraced the minutely shaking form. He rested his head on her shoulder. "Are you cold?" he inquired solicitously.

"No, I'm forsaken," she uttered in a surprisingly sobered voice.

"I'm here."

"But you only hurt me." Mina trembled in his arms but didn't reject the contact. Alexander was warm, and strong. Alexander was also dangerous and frightening, but she didn't seem to care today, in her intoxicated state. "You cannot help me. Nobody can," she added, while relaxing further her fragile body against the solid presence behind her. She felt for an instant secure.

"Ilona," Grayson whispered in her ear, "I promise you in time we'll be together. Please, believe me," he entreated with a choked voice.

Mina giggled again. "We can never be together," she said a little forlornly, after a while. "I hate you, remember?" Her tone was suddenly serious. She turned her head to stare in puzzlement at Alexander's face. She perused him at will, trying to discover a new answer to all her old apprehensions by simply surveying that apparently innocuous semblance. He was a handsome man, she thought in surprise; his stare seemed kind.

Without being really aware of it, she uttered the thoughts that were now crowding her mind. "You seem kind," she stated. "How could you have been so cruel to me? She sighed wistfully, shaking a bit her head. "Do I not deserve a little of your mercy?"she at last asked, abashed and discomfited. In her wildly inebriated state, she also was able to accomplish the previously unattainable feat of holding his penetrating stare.

Alexander couldn't bear the sorrow embedded in her gaze. He held her closer and turned her to face again the sleeping city, that shining conglomerate of brilliant lights. Mina docilely complied. Alexander buried his head in her wild raven mane, inhaling sensuously the scent of her. He then started placing delicate kisses on the back of her neck. "Ilona, please understand, you're my life," he conveyed to her between unfaltering caresses, his rough hands giving a jolt of electricity to Mina, with each bolder contact. He stroked her face, and hair and arms, with an emotion he hadn't felt before. He pressed his turgid manhood against her back, moving his body in rhythmic, frantic passion.

Mina felt at once Alexander's arousal, and trembled in fear. The heavy burden of his body was keeping her firmly squashed against the balustrade, and she sighed when her skirt was lifted and she was suddenly penetrated. A forceful hand kept her hunched down on the freezing stone balcony, while Alexander frenziedly moved in and out of her helpless body. A hand started squeezing her chest, massaging voluptuously the hardened nubs from under the torn fabric, while another reached her mouth. Mina started sucking on the prying fingers, oblivious of the consequences of this last act of lasciviousness of hers, and too drunk to care.

When it was over, Alexander held her tightly into his arms, unwilling to let her go, to let this sublime moment pass. He possessively caressed her hips, and whispered, "Ilona, don't ever leave me."

The woman went rigid under the touch, and fumbled to regain an upright position. She made to approach the stairs, but stumbled and was promptly collected by Grayson's strong arms. He lifted her like a twig and brought her to his carriage. She let herself be carried, laying her head on Alexander's muscular chest and closing her eyes. Grayson expediently instructed Renfield to search for Miss Westenra and inform her that Miss Murray had felt unwell and was being taken care of. He gave the driver Mina's address.

Once inside, Alexander kept vigil on the splayed form of his Ilona, peacefully slumbering on his knees, with her head innocently tucked in the crook of his neck. She resembled an angel, his angel, come back to him to redeem him of all his sins. He leaned down and inhaled her sweet scent, his hands massaging possessively her enticing thighs and the voluptuous breasts. He couldn't have enough of her. He rejoiced in the abandon, the implicit trust the sleeping form displayed before him, notwithstanding everything he had done to her since the first day they met.

Each of his actions had been a necessary means to an end, he reasoned, but that thought didn't make him quite at ease today, all of a sudden. Today he had taken advantage of the confused stupor of her beloved; she had permitted everything, but that unexpectedly didn't appear an acceptable justification. Today's encounter hadn't been different than the one on the first night they had together, but somehow, something felt out of place to Alexander. Mina had found in the bottom of a glass the courage to voice her questions and fears, her loneliness and shame, and her anguished plea kept resonating in his mind. He hadn't answered her, and his denial abruptly seemed to him much more monstrous that the sequels of acts he had subjected her to.

She needed to remember him, and he needed her to want to stay with him, to acknowledge their old life together as her own – that was his most prized goal - but he maybe was making her suffer unnecessarily, in the process. Doubt crept on him like the cobwebs of a despicable alien entity, threatening to choke him to death.

Staring at that innocent creature between his arms, a twinge of guilt surprisingly started finding its way among the unbeating fibers of his hardened heart.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter V

Mina lay in a hospital bed. Grayson waited for Harker and her father to leave, and then entered again the private room. Fresh flowers were everywhere, nicely arranged in jars and vases scattered on every imaginable piece of furniture, but to Alexander it all seemed like a tomb, vaguely ominous of the hardships they soon would have to confront. He tossed his coat in haste, unmindful of where it would land, and stood at the foot of the bed, a tense hand stroking uneasily his moustache and beard. He sighed heavily and went to sit beside the woman, taking one pale hand in his. He awakened her with a gentle shake.

"We need to talk," he uttered in a firm tone.

Mina turned her head toward the voice, and blinked once or twice, hurting evident on her face. "I've already told you and Jonathan all I could remember," she objected tiredly.

"I know. But there is something of the most extreme importance that we have to decide now."

"What is it?" she sleepily enquired, closing again her eyes and moaning in distress.

"Ilona, listen to me." Alexander's voice was imperious and urgent.

"What are you doing here? Where is my father?" She enquired in a mildly distressed voice.

"Don't worry. I'm here. I will always be here." Alexander squeezed harder her hand.

Mina didn't feel comforted by the news, but made a move to sit up, and Grayson's strong hands solicitously helped her, pulling and holding her limber form until she was comfortably ensconced against some pillows. She sighed and passed a hand on the bandage on her forehead. "What is it, then?" she inquired with a weary look on her face.

Alexander started, "Ilona, you're my life. You make me want more than I can possibly have. You make me want to walk in the sun." He exhaled audibly. "I belong to you, and you belong to me." With the last words, he tightened his grip and kept staring enraptured at the woman in front of him.

"What do you mean?" was the response he received. The woman shook minutely her head in confusion. "What is this nonsense?" She eyed Alexander with a reproving stare.

"Ilona, we are getting married. The sooner, the better." The announcement was categorical.

Mina chuckled childishly, touching her forehead again and grimacing in pain. "Mr. Grayson, I don't feel well. Please, let me sleep a little more," she pleaded.

Alexander eyed her with a determined gaze. "We don't have time. We are getting married, and that's final," he repeated, this time carefully enunciating the words, as to make their meaning unequivocally clear to the apparently stubborn woman.

"Have you lost your mind? Can I remind you that I am the person who received a strike on the head, and not you?" She slurred her words and grinned inanely, flinging back her head to rest tiredly on the pillows.

"It's what I have to do to protect you," he stated, an afflicted expression for a moment on his face.

Mina stared at him from under her lashes. "And what if I don't want to marry you?"

"You will have to," he clarified mournfully. "Your life is in mortal danger. It has come the time for you return to live with me."Alexander was becoming progressively agitated. Mina kept staring at him in wonderment from her semi-reclined position. "My enemies somehow have found out about you. This is Lord Davenport's work," he said gesturing in the general direction of her injuries.

"Lord Davenport? But why?"

"He must have seen the triptych when he was at my house. Or somebody found it and reported to him. And if he knows, the Order knows."

"Knows what?" Mina felt progressively like talking to one of the lunatics in her father's hospital.

Grayson hadn't finished yet. "Listen, and listen well: as soon as they discover my identity, your fate will be sealed too. I'm sorry, but you cannot have your life back, you need to be under my constant watch now!"

Mina was not laughing anymore. Most of Alexander's words didn't make any sense to her, but she understood the essential point of his whole delivery. His ferocious determination suddenly frightened her. The situation was deadly serious, because the man in front of her couldn't be crossed. At least, she didn't dare to, at that particular juncture. She glanced at Grayson with a mirthless expression, fear taking again hold of her mind.

Alexander had now a terrible look painted on his face. She recognized quickly that expression, and trembled under his unequivocal, definitive gaze.

Boldly, she made a last attempt to try and reason with him. Gulping a few times and stroking unconsciously the bandages on her wrists, she tried to state clearly her mind, a part of herself already convinced that it would not do any good, anyway. "Mr. Grayson, I don't know you and you don't know me." She threw a furtive glance at the man and lowered her stare again. "I'm engaged to Jonathan, and you are nothing to me, please understand this. Most of all, I despise your treatment of me, and the debasement you have subjected me in these last weeks." The last sentence was voiced in a broken tone, and Mina couldn't bear to look up to gauge the reaction she had elicited, too afraid of the outcome.

A savage expression deformed at once Grayson's features. "Ilona, this is not the time for playing your games."

Her face blanched. "What games?"

Alexander's expression hardened. "I've indulged you so far with your fancies about your engagement to your Jonathan. But you know that you are mine. And that's the end of it. Forget Harker and come with me."

"You're exactly like Jonathan. He likes to make all the decisions for me, and so do you!" she recognized pointedly, her voice minutely raised for a fleetingly audacious moment.

Grayson took a breath and arranged expediently his vest, tugging the hem in visible fury, his mouth contorted in a disagreeable grimace. He moved towards the door and started walking in circles, hands shoved in his pockets. "Ilona, there is nothing to discuss. You will be my wife. And I advise you to obey me promptly." He threw a sly glance at her.

"Why, what's going to happen if I don't?"

He stared at her determinately. "For starters, your beloved Jonathan is going to spend the rest of his days in prison. Secondly, I have the means and will to ruin your father. Don't try to play with me, because you wouldn't like the outcome." His tone was now forbidding.

"What do you mean?" she asked in a small, bewildered voice, suddenly aware that the rest of her life was being decided for her right there and then, at the hands of a merciless man.

"Harker is now on his way to kill Davenport, in retaliation for your assault. He doesn't know it yet, but blood will be shed. If you agree with my request, I may be inclined to save your fiancé from a life of ignominy. If not, he will rot in prison, I will make sure of that. Your father will not fare better. I have in my possession certain _lettres de crédit_ he was very foolish to sign: he can lose his house and be on the streets with a nod of my head." Grayson approached again the woman, and stared defiantly at her.

Mina was astounded. "You cannot do that, you monster!" at last she cried.

"I can, and I will. It's really very simple: I can always take you by force and make you stay with me. Nobody will ever know your fate. But getting married would be certainly easier, and much less distressing for you: in this way, your poor father will not have to spend the rest of his days wondering what happened to you. You see, I can be reasonable," he finished with a smile, a crazy look patent now in his eyes.

Mina lowered her gaze and sighed in anguish. At last, she nodded in abjection, her lips tightly pressed to avoid articulating the despair her heart was filling with.

During the next hours, Grayson's gloomy predictions materialized, like a nightmarish fever, in front of Mina's eyes. Alexander had left her bed soon after her forced acceptance, but sleep hadn't come again in aid of her disconsolate mind. She tossed and turned in the quiet room, until the first lights of dawn. After midday, her father appeared again next to her. His semblance was weary, and hesitantly he started a recount of the last dreadful events.

He fought with himself until the last minute, but his relationship with Mina was of too honest a nature, to dare keeping concealed what had transpired from his last conversation with Grayson. Apparently, Lord Davenport had been murdered in his own house the night before, and it was too easy for the afflicted father to guess who had been the killer. His heart broke, thinking of the scandal and the suffering the news would soon bring to his daughter.

Mina was strangely aloof, while listening to her father's tentative explanation. She had sat herself on the bed, and had asked when she would be released from the hospital. She assured everybody she was feeling fine on that day, and then pleaded with her father until she convinced him to be returned home.

During their journey back, she didn't mention once Jonathan Harker's predicament, as if she had suddenly forgotten him, and the father was too afraid of reopening a fresh wound, by making more pressing inquiries about her state of mind.

Two more days passed, without any reassuring news about Jonathan. He seemed to have vanished from the face of the Earth. And Mina seemed to have been in a state of trance, in the eyes of her discomfited father. She would not ask for news about her fiancé, she wouldn't go out to the University, she barely spoke all day with anybody at all, and she just kept walking mournfully from a room to another, like a ghost.

Then, a week after her return from the hospital, she saw a carriage approaching the house. It was dusk, and in the semi-darkness of the street she glanced from the upper window at Alexander Grayson purposefully entering her foyer. A pang of anguish pierced her heart.

She paced her own small, suffocating room for what seemed like hours, until finally she heard a discreet knock on the door. She braced herself for the difficult conversation that was ahead.

It was her father, entering and taking a seat in a nearby armchair. "Mina, the most extraordinary thing has happened," he hushed, his face evidently showing the recent distress.

"What is it?" Mina inquired with a resigned voice, a gentle smile trying to hide her inner turmoil from her father.

"Mr. Alexander Grayson is waiting right now in my study, with the most preposterous proposal of all. He has refused to leave until I speak with you about it. Mina, what's happening?" Her father's voice was urgent, and lashed at Mina's sensitive fibers with sudden, overwhelming pity. If for her father or herself, she couldn't exactly tell. Maybe for the both of them, she decided wistfully.

"Nothing, father, nothing at all."

Dr. Murray passed a hand through his hair. "Mr. Grayson has just come to ask your hand in marriage. This is just nonsensical. Did you know anything about that?"

"Yes, I did, father." She deliberately shaped her expression as to convey as much self-assurance as she could. "I wish to marry Mr. Grayson." She waited expectantly for her father's next words.

"But how can you, Mina? You barely know him!"

She went to take a seat beside him. "I've come to know him recently through Jonathan, and now we wish to be married."

"And what about your fiancé? We still don't know anything about him, and you don't seem worried at all about his fate…"

Mina lowered her gaze. "I don't wish to talk about Jonathan. I will marry Alexander Grayson, if you give us our blessing. Please, father…?" she at last beseeched.

"My dearest Mina, you know that I love you more than life itself. And since your mother left us, we have been always together, the two of us against the world, eh…" Dr. Murray chuckled lightly. "You know that I can't deny you anything you wish, it has always been so." He caressed her affectionately on the top of the head. "But you need to tell me the truth, now."

"Yes, father?"

Dr. Murray stared at her in all seriousness, a flicker of worry dancing in his eyes. "Is Mr. Grayson forcing you to do this, in any way?"

"No, father." She smiled at him.

"Because Mina," the old gentleman continued, "you don't have any obligation to him. Or to me, for that matter. You don't have to marry him if you don't want to."

"But I want to marry Mr. Grayson."

"Yes, yes, you told me that." The man lowered his gaze in embarrassment. "But Mina, you are so young, and there are many things in this world you don't understand." He shook his head reflectively. "Mr. Grayson has been mentioning to me certain foolish debts I have acquired. He is now in possession of some documents, and he has assured me, in the most amiable of ways, he was ready to return them to me upon your marriage to him…" Dr. Murray's voice had become uncertain, an uneasy grimace painted on his face. "But Mina, if you are marrying him because of this, you don't have to! Do you understand? We don't need any of this," he added gesturing to the room. "We can start a new life anywhere. We can go together and start a new adventure, what do you say, dearest Mina?" The last words were spoken vehemently, as if the poor doctor was making a last attempt at regaining his life back, with his beloved daughter.

Mina looked at her father with profound love, shaken to the soul by the good man's kind heart. A whole fresh wave of pity constrained her frenzied heart. There were a million things she wanted to confess to him at that point, but she only smiled gaily, and said, "Oh father, money has nothing to do with it! Please believe me, I'm sure I want to marry Mr. Grayson. I haven't ever been so sure in my life, you don't have to worry."

Dr. Murray looked at her a little skeptically, but the bright smile on his daughter's face took away some of his anxieties. It wasn't much, but the man decided at last it would be enough. "Well then, if this is your final word, I will not stay in your way." Coughing lightly, he added in haste, his voice broken by emotion, "Come, come, Mr. Grayson is waiting downstairs for your answer." He abruptly stood up and took hold of Mina's hand.

"Now?" The woman's face visibly blanched.

Dr. Murray smiled at her. "Mina, these must be just bride-to-be jitters. Go tell your new fiancé the good news. He wouldn't leave the house without seeing you first. Ah, this is what being in love must look like." Dr. Murray chuckled under his breath. "You know you have my blessing," he added in a more solemn tone of voice. Placing a kind kiss on his daughter's forehead, he left the room and glanced at her daughter walking slowly towards the study.

Mina exhaled forlornly and opened the door. A new, abject chapter of her life was about to begin.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter VI

"But Mina, I don't understand all this haste!" Lucy complained in a querulous voice, while the two women were descending the carriage that had brought them to Carfax Manor. "I do need more time to properly organize your reception. What's this madness of getting married in just a week?"

"Mr. Grayson wanted it so," Mina answered in all seriousness.

Lucy chuckled knowingly. "He cannot wait to be with you, eh? Oh, that's just so romantic! He's like a charming pirate, come to sweep you off your feet! Is it not what an American would do, though? They are so hot-headed!" she finished, clapping her hands together in delight. "I'm just so happy for you. And it's a good thing you have forgotten that Jonathan Harker of yours… He disappeared without a word: just something a person like him would do! I can only imagine what sort of trouble he managed to put himself into. I've never liked him, with his perennially serious face and his aversion to fun!"

She took Mina's arm under hers. "You'll see, dearest Mina, you will be much better off with Mr. Grayson. This is the best for you! And you won't have to do a thing: I'll take care of the reception, however short-noticed it has been," she added with a playfully admonishing gaze, "and you'll be a wonderful bride," she finished sweetly, approaching the magnificent outside stairs.

They entered the impressive hall, and Mina's heart suddenly recoiled, painfully recollecting the shameful hours of her first, forced, visit to that infernal house.

"Oh, that's just so impressive," Lucy exclaimed with ravishment. "You will live very comfortably here, Mina! Mr. Grayson will be able to give you a splendid, lavish life! I've heard his fortune is immense!" she added joyously, eyeing her long-time friend with an excited, kind expression.

Mina hadn't been listening to a word Lucy had said. She walked a little forlornly to the center of the room, and stood there as if paralyzed by a sudden, overwhelming rush of feelings. Her head started to spin, and she again approached Lucy, to lean on her arm. She felt like fainting, and she grasped at her friend with vehemence, like a boat in a torment, desperately trying to find her way.

Her heart startled when she heard a voice coming from the adjacent library. "My fair ladies, it's such a pleasure to have you here." Alexander Grayson approached them with a swift gait and placed a kiss on Lucy's hand. "Miss Westenra, it is so kind that you have accepted to help Miss Murray with the last preparations. My house and staff is at your complete disposal: you just need to do your magic." He smiled at her with a roguish, charming grin. "I want this party to be memorable, no expenses spared."

He then turned towards Mina. "Miss Murray, how do you do today?" He eyed her with a penetrating, serious stare. "This is your house now," he stated meaningfully.

The words seemed vaguely ominous to Mina. "Not until next Sunday," she noticed pointedly.

"Well, Sunday is just a few days ahead," Grayson replied with glee.

Unmindful of the apparent tension in the room, Lucy took a few steps towards the richly decorated curtains and started busying herself with the concoction of preposterous floral arrangement for the festivities. "I can just picture it!" She exclaimed in a high-pitched tone. "I will dispatch immediately for garlands of peonies and apple blossoms to be draped on the walls! And candelabra, silver candelabra everywhere! Do you agree, Mina?"

"Yes, of course," was the only, non-committal response she received. Mina hadn't moved from her spot beside Grayson, and was looking even more aloof now, in the face of all the particulars about the reception Lucy was gleefully blurting out. She wished she could find the courage to ask the man about Jonathan and her father: after all, he had promised to help them, if she complied with her part of the bargain, she thought mournfully. Ultimately, she kept silent, not daring to utter a word about the hideous arrangement, especially in front of Lucy. She berated herself for all the cowardice she was displaying today, but recognized that speaking aloud her voice had acquired at that moment all the proportions of an impossible feat.

"Well, now that I've seen the space at our disposal, I have a much clearer Idea of what needs to be done! I will send immediately my own maid to take care of the finishing details: she'll know exactly want I want best, and she'll be able to do a very skilled job with my instructions, Mr. Grayson," Lucy declared with a satisfied tone.

"I knew we could count on your accomplished tastes," Alexander stated with a lopsided grin. He turned his head when a man approached him in haste, and graciously excused himself, to confer with his chief engineer, who had appeared from the bowels of the mansion. After a time, he rejoined the two women and said, "Miss Westenra, we have an experiment going on with the new resonating machine. Would to stay and watch?"

Lucy eyed Mina with impatience. "Oh really, Mina, must we?" she cried in a peevish tone.

Grayson was fast to intervene. "Miss Murray, I really need your presence with me today. I promise you, the experiment will be interesting." He smiled to Lucy. "But of course, Miss Westenra is free to leave the premises, if she doesn't wish to join us." He took her hand and accompanied her to the main door. "It's a pleasure as always to see you," he added gallantly as a way of departure, a complicit grin shining in Lucy's eyes.

Mina remained transfixed for a moment in the middle of the vast, solitary, hall. "Why did you do that? It's most improper for me to remain here alone," she admonished Alexander with an alarmed tinge to her words.

Grayson just chuckled. "You have a friend who is most accommodating. I only asked her to give us some time to ourselves." He smiled at her in the most impudent of ways, his eyebrow quirked up and his head cocked to the side.

Mina lowered her gaze. "That was not my question."

"Don't you know, Ilona? I want to be alone with you." He drew near her and, taking her hand, stirred her towards the downward stairs, towards the laboratory. She followed in silence.

"This is my life work. I wanted you to see it. Now that you are going again to be part of my life." Alexander accompanied her to a nearby station, and started explaining the virtues of the new energy-production system.

Mina couldn't follow a word he was saying.

It all sounded very scientific, which should have been of interest to her, but she couldn't but keep staring at Grayson's excited expression while recounting the feats of their recent discoveries. It all felt out of place. That hideous man suddenly seemed like a child to her, with all that outpouring love for some machine, and abruptly he felt 'human' to her again.

She kept staring at him, fascinated by that the bright light in his eyes, while describing the intangible future the new scientific accomplishments could bring humankind. Her heart constrained with a new pang of commotion, because maybe the monster in front of her, who had just blackmailed her into marrying him, seemed to have, nevertheless, feelings. She was astounded by the discovery.

His hands were moving fast, while showing her for perusal new strange screws, bolts and bulbs: she touched them with trembling hands, as if to make sure they were real, as if they were the revered instruments in a ritual she was not privy to, a ritual that would amazingly restitute some of his humanity to the heartless creature in front of him.

She quietly approached a strange station, with buttons and handlebars, and so many brilliant lights. Grayson's voice was now a pleasant murmur streaming into her consciousness, like a caress intent on conveying a different, less despicable account for the man telling of marvelous achievements with such a passion. He couldn't be a monster if he had at least a heart for his experiments, she thought with a flicker of unconfessed hope.

Redemption for the both of them seemed for a moment a tangible element, that she was almost able to touch, as firmly as the grip she was now maintaining on one of the light bulbs Grayson had just offered her.

She looked at it mesmerized, as if the rest of her life would depend on the chemical reactions they were going to witness together, and she waited, for an endless moment, for an answer to the mystery that was that terrible man. She dared not admit it even to herself, but she prayed to a faceless god with abandon for the first time, that the outcome wouldn't break her heart.

The chief engineer had put in motion the machine, and the rackety uproar took her by surprise. Suddenly, an explosion wracked throughout the laboratory. Mina was shaken by it, while a strong presence swayed over her in a rush and held her firmly in its embrace. Alexander Grayson was again holding her tightly in his arms, and she was outdone by the abrupt, strong contact.

At last, the commotion was over, and she heard Alexander saying, in a worried voice, "Miss Murray, you have been hurt. Please, let me take a look at it."

She unconsciously brought a hand to her bleeding forehead, while Grayson led her expediently to an adjacent room, full of medical supplies.

"Take a seat, if you will," he urged, while moving her to sit on a chair he had placed in the center of the small, improvised infirmary.

"It's nothing to be worried about," he said after a while with relief. "It's just a scratch," he added with a reassuring smile, putting away the alcohol and cotton on a nearby stand.

He placed himself again in front of Mina, who hadn't moved from her seat, as if she had been in some sort of momentary trance. She looked up to the man standing in front of her in silence, and lowered again her gaze to avoid his fixed stare.

Then a hand was placed on her agitated breast. Alexander started gently and slowly unbuttoning her blouse. "What are you doing?" she managed to say in a shaky voice.

"Checking for more injuries, of course. One can never be too careful," he smoothly responded, a maddeningly impish grin on his face.

Mina brought a hand to feebly grasp at the marauding one of the man.

"I feel fine."

The bold caresses didn't stop. "Ilona, don't be frightened. This is natural between husband and wife."

"I'm not yet your wife," she corrected in a small voice, but didn't make any attempt to stand up.

Grayson smiled at her with uncontrollable love and desire. "You've been my wife for the last four hundred years. You just don't remember it." He looked at her with renewed passion, while keeping intently unbuttoning the shirt and unfastening the corset. Mina instinctively brought her hands up to cover herself, when she was bared, her supple skin suddenly at complete disposal for the prying gaze of the man. She stood still, her head down and her arms crossed on her chest, much like a penitent asking for deliverance.

Grayson was now towering over her. "Look at me," he said in a gentle but firm voice, one of his hands lifting her chin with reverence, until their eyes met.

Their gazes interlocked, Alexander started rubbing down the voluptuous breasts, kneading the hardened nubs between his strong, skilled fingers, and unwittingly provoking a small gasp to escape Mina's mouth. "Do you enjoy it?" he asked in a husky voice. "Don't be ashamed, Ilona. You're mine, and I'm yours, remember that."

He swiftly opened his trousers, and guided one of her trembling hands to his aroused manhood. "I'm yours, and this is yours too." Without relinquishing her pale, delicate limb, he maneuvered it to caress the engorged member. Mina let herself be guided by those hands, touching obscenely that turgid flesh with a sort of wicked abandon. She felt like an instrument in Alexander's hands, and therefore less accountable for the lurid actions she was now performing, at the bequest of that demeaning, blackmailing beast.

Finally, Grayson turned sideways and discharged his passion, an arm outstretched to lean on the nearby shelf, and an almost savage grimace deforming his features for a moment. He refastened his trousers with efficient moves and leaned to kiss Mina on the mouth for the first time. The opening contact was reverent, as if he thought she would shatter under his touch. Then he deepened the kiss, his tongue dancing over her lips, and demanding access.

He kneeled between her semi-splayed legs, and moved lower, sucking with relish on the exposed breasts, taking alternatively the nubs between his teeth and his calloused hands, and provoking a shattered moan to escape at last Mina's lips.

Still trembling from the unexpected pleasure she had just experienced, Mina let herself be redress by Alexander. His touch was warm, and she felt like a rag doll, ready to be put again on display on some shelf once she was again completely covered by the shield of the fabric.

She lowered her gaze and shook minutely her head, wondering in bewilderment what kind of life she would have for the years to come, with this contemptible, devious man. And she knew at that moment that she wouldn't be able to ever deny him anything, till the day of her death. She felt more lost than ever.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter VII

The wedding reception had been a grandiose affair.

There had been dining, and dancing and heartfelt toasts to the new happy couple. Lucy had done an exemplary job at decorating the house for the festivities, and Mina had displayed her best behavior, unwilling to let any of the guests see her inner turmoil. She had been a perfect, charming host and, towards the end of the evening, Grayson had approached her again, to ask her to retire with him for the night.

Mina knew what that request entailed, and her expression filled with gloom. She said goodbye to family and friends, her heart inexplicably sure that was the last time she would see them ever again, and berating herself for such thoughts that were threatening to shatter the perfect mask of happiness she had been wearing for the night. She let herself be guided by Alexander upstairs, like an obedient, new little wife.

The spacious corridors led finally the couple to a lavishly decorated room, a four-poster bed dominating its center like an obscene display of the kind of activities that were required to be performed between those oppressing walls.

Mina stood still in the doorframe, until Alexander took her by a hand and rushed her in, closing the door with a heavy thud behind them. The woman walked to the large window and opened the panels in haste. She stared at the night sky, and wished to be anywhere else but there. She then turned to look at Alexander, her face transfigured with a hard, unforgiving expression.

"Well, I kept my word," she stated, her tone algid. "I trust you will be able now to maintain your part of the bargain."

Alexander snickered. "Ilona, I know you are nervous, but there is really no need." In a flash, he was near her, extending a hand to drag her on the bed. "A wife's place is by her husband's side," he admonished playfully, with a roguish grin.

Pulling away from the tentative touch as if burned, Mina took a couple of steps back, towards the massive armoire on the left side of the room, and continued, in the same lugubrious tone, staring at nobody in particular. "You can do whatever you want with me now that I am your wife; God knows you have liberally helped yourself with me even before we were married." Her faced blushed in shame. "But I want it to make perfectly clear to you that I hate and despise your actions with all my heart. "

"Ilona, don't say that…"Alexander pleaded with her, his face suddenly serious.

"And I would appreciate very much if you stopped calling me with that odious name. I know I've been bought and paid for, but I'd like to retain my own name, at least!"

Tightening his fists in a fierce attempt at controlling himself, Alexander managed to say in an almost even voice, "You are tired with all the emotions of the day." He shook his head. "Maybe a little rest will do you good." He eyed her keenly and lowered his gaze. "Ilona, sleep well. I will leave you alone for the night." He brought a hand to stroke idly his beard, and made to reach the door.

It was Mina who halted his exit with a loud snicker, derision evident in her tone. "How supremely noble of you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, kind Sir." She heard herself speaking, and miserably admitted to have lost her unhinged, tired mind. She laughed to herself and made a little curtsy to accompany the cutting words. "However, before you go, there is the matter concerning Jonathan and my father. I would only hope that even an animal like you, will be capable to maintain a promise."

"Ilona, this is not the time…"

"So, am I to understand that a beast like you, besides being too dumb to even remember my own name, is also without a shred of honor?"

Alexander's face contorted in sudden fury. "I would be careful with your words, if I were you," he hissed in a dangerously low voice.

Terror was again tightening its grip on Mina's bereaved, forsaken mind, but she didn't relent. A part of her recognized her crazy, self-destructive frame of mind, as if she wished to be killed today by the man in front of her, and she couldn't manage to care. She reveled with glee in the fleeting thought that this could be her last night among the living. And she desperately wished it to be so.

"I want to know about Jonathan, and I want to know now!" she screamed instead at Alexander, who had approached the bed and was now watching her from a sprawled position, his head resting nonchalantly on his bent arm, and his stare intent.

"Why, already missing your little fiancé?" The words were delivered in a disgusted tone.

"He is ten times the person you are, Mr. Grayson. And you promised you would save him from prison. Where is he? The Police have been looking for him everywhere. Did you kill him? He and my father are the only reasons why I'm here, with a monster like you."

Alexander sighed in mild exasperation. "Mr. Harker is at this moment embarked on a ship that will bring him safely to America, with a brand new identity and his pockets full of my money. I'm sure he will do very fine over there with the numerous connections I have set him up with. A briefcase with your father's documents has just been delivered to your former house. " He eyed her tauntingly. "Satisfied now?"

"No, I don't believe you! I don't believe a word you say!"

A grimace appeared on Grayson's face. "Tomorrow Renfield will escort you to confer with your father and make sure that I've told you the truth. I will ask Harker to send you a photograph of him kissing passionately the Statue of Liberty. Do you think it will do? Would you consider calming yourself down?" His tone was now cutting.

"Why, am I spoiling your first night?" She grinned at him scornfully and then, grasping the first thing she found at her disposal, she threw a large flower vase at his general direction. She missed the target miserably, and the porcelain crashed and shattered loudly on the floor in the middle of the room.

Alexander stood up in a frenzy and threw himself at her. Looking at the love of his life in the eyes for a terrible second, he slapped her viciously across the face, and then left the room in long strides, slamming the door with all the force he possessed.

The next day she woke up alone in the large, overbearing chamber, surprised and saddened by the fact that apparently she was still alive. She didn't remember the whole sequence of yesterday's events, but she had been so sure she wouldn't pass the night. Instead Alexander had somehow decided to spare her life, at least for a day more, and she wasn't exactly sure why.

Grayson had been pacing the vast hall all night, and in the morning he met the worried stare of his faithful friend. "Renfield, she is something, isn't she?" he asked, shaking bleakly his head with a sickened grimace painted on his face. He drank with relish a mouthful more of whisky, and inquired, "Is she up, yet?"

"I will send immediately a maid upstairs, to find out about her condition today."

After a moment of ominous silence that passed between the two men, Alexander brought himself closer to the fireplace and stared intently at the blazing flames. He then threw with force his glass on the floor, and looked at it shattering into a million pieces. "She hates me! She hates and despises me, Renfield! She scorns me, she spurns me!" he screamed, a furious look in his maddened gaze.

"Maybe you need to give her just a little more time, Sir," the lawyer tried to reason.

"Time for what?!" Grayson yelled. "I can take her by force every time I please, now that I have her in my house, and she will only hate me more for it! I can take her over and over, and it will not change a thing! I never should have forced her to marry me, but it was the only way to keep her safe after the attack, short of having her chained to the walls in the basement for the rest of her life!"

With a contemptuous gesture, he reached the nearby table with a purposeful stride, and lifted the heavy piece of furniture with both arms, letting it tumble over and fall with a thunderous crash on the polished floor. He stared at Renfield with a murderous look in his eyes. "I need blood! I need blood now!" he exclaimed while approaching the main door with all the composure of a madman.

Reinfeld stood in his way, and courageously blocked his frenzied pace. "Calm yourself down, Sir."

"Why, what are you going to do if I don't?" Alexander challenged, staring his counterpart in the eyes with a determined look.

"I will not do anything. But it's the middle of the day outside. The sun will be in charge to burn you to a crisp."

Alexander stood in his tracks and eyed Renfield in silence. He then exploded in a wild, self-deprecating laugh. "Is this what my life has come to? Do I have to skulk in the shadows like a common thief, while my wife is upstairs, barricaded in her chambers and despising me with all her might? And she doesn't even know yet what I really am…" He passed a shaking hand through his disheveled hair, an afflicted look suddenly patent in his eyes.

"Renfield, do me a favor, will you?" Grayson said after a while, in a calmer tone. "Tell Josef to stay away for a bit: the bloody fool cannot control himself, and will only scare my wife. I'm already doing a good job of it, myself." He chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Ah, and another thing: call somebody to tidy the place up," he said with a gesture directed vaguely at the havoc in the room he had just provoked. His voice sounded defeated. "We do have guests today for dinner, and please let my wife know that her presence is required."

"Of course, Sir. May I be so bold to ask who is coming so soon to interrupt the newlyweds' romantic ambiance?"

Grayson eyed Renfield with a barely contained look of renewed fury, and then shook his head again in discomfort. "Sometimes I think, my friend, that you are too clever for your own good."

"It's like a mill stone around my neck." The lawyer kept watching his counterpart with a mildly curious look, relentless about receiving an answer to his question.

Alexander strolled leisurely toward the liquors cabinet, and poured himself one more glass of scotch, with slow, precise movements, as if he were preparing a highly volatile concoction, that could explode in his hands at any moment. "Lady Jayne Wetherby will be dining with us. I invited her yesterday. Is it enough of an answer for you?" he finally offered without turning.

With unshakeable aplomb, Renfield eyed unflinchingly Alexander's finely chiseled shoulders, covered with a disheveled shirt and a vest that had seen better days. "Is that a wise choice, Sir?"

Grayson growled under his breath. "I don't really have a choice here. All the progress I had made with her, is being threatened by this fairytale that is my recent nuptials. I have to gain her favors back, before she becomes overly suspicious of my intentions for soliciting her company in the first place during the past weeks."

"I see, Sir. You're trying to regain her love," the lawyer observed sagely.

"No, Renfield. Much more than that: her trust. There is nothing better than playing two females against each other." Alexander snickered at the deviousness of his own plan, a tinge of sadness peculiarly present in his words. "Lady Jayne will be eating out of my hand again in no time, I guarantee you that. She is a worldly woman, to say it mildly, and she will enjoy this kind of convoluted, sick liaison, as soon as she believes she's my favorite. And then I will be a step closer to unveil the members of the Order and their monstrous secrets."

Reinfeld imperceptibly quirked an eyebrow. "And what's the role your wife will be playing in this whole charade?"

"Well, of course she will be a very accomplished martyr."

Renfield went silent, and eyed Alexander in mild discomfort.

"You don't approve, my friend?"

"It's not that, Sir."

"What, then?" Alexander stared at him in annoyance.

Renfield sighed and shook his head. "It's just that I don't know how she will take this new game of yours.

Alexander lowered his gaze. "She will not know it is a game," he whispered almost to himself. "And she will hate me more for it." The affliction in his voice was palpable.

"Maybe there is another way, and I had hoped you would have considered it." Renfield walked to stand in front of his employer, almost as if he wished to convince him with the sole preeminence of his sizeable bulk.

"Really?" Grayson cocked his head to the side in mild mockery.

"I wish you could speak to her, and explain," the lawyer delivered in whole seriousness.

Alexander let go a nervous, hollow laugh. "Why, Renfield, have you taken a shine to her? After all the grief you've given me for pursuing her? Did you see how she treats me? Did you?" he questioned, raising exponentially his voice. "No, Renfield, I cannot explain anything, and I'm not even sure I want to. There is too much to account for, and I wouldn't know where to start."

"I understand it would be a difficult exchange."

"To say it mildly. And it's better this way." He gave a last rueful glance at his friend."The only thing I wish is to protect her from the Order, even if I have to hide her in the bowels of the Earth. If she hates me for it, I can take it. And if she hates me, the less time she will have to discover what I am."

After pouring more whisky into his glass, Alexander walked slowly towards his study, and closed the door behind him. Renfield's sad stare followed him throughout his mournful stroll towards his temporary hide.

Three hours later, the dining table in the main salon was impeccably arranged, and Grayson was comfortably ensconced in an armchair beside the fire. He kept mindlessly toying with another bourbon glass, taking one sip and then another at regular intervals, while purposefully eyeing the top of the stairs. Finally, a rustle of silken fabric was heard, and Mina descended to meet her husband downstairs. Alexander threw a furtive glance at her and couldn't but think she carried herself that morning with all the countenance of a saint towards martyrdom: she just was missing a halo.

"You're late," he said in a severe voice, with his gaze fixed on his glass. "We will have guests for supper, and next time I call for you, I'd appreciate more promptness in obeying my orders." He was sure another shouting match was bound to ensue with his estranged Ilona, but he looked up when his words were met by silence.

Mina had taken a seat on the sofa opposite Alexander. He stared at her face for the first time on that day: she was pale and her eyes were downcast, like a proper penitent, Grayson thought crazily. Her lower lip was cut and a little bit swollen, surely thanks to the vicious strike she had received yesterday at his own hands. A timid twinge of guilt passed fleetingly in Grayson's eyes.

Silence protracted for interminable seconds, and then she asked in a subdued voice, "Who are we expecting?"

Grayson responded tersely, "Lady Jayne Wetherby."

Mina's face blanched further, but she didn't dare say a thing.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter VIII

It was the second night Mina had spent alone in her new, awe-inspiring chambers. The little reunion her husband had organized, had been one of the most torturous experiences in her life. She would have preferred much better to have been killed once and for all by Alexander on their first married night, as she had fervently hoped to, because this was a new, despicable and slow, very slow death for her.

Lady Jayne had been charming and witty, as a person of her social status and experience was accustomed to be. Her dress was very provocative and expensive. She was one of those women who had handy, at any given occasion, a refined allure, and she flaunted it liberally wherever she went, Mina noticed wistfully. Alexander seemed not to be immune from her charms. Gallantries were exchanged profusely between him and their guest, while Mina had remained silent for the most part of the soiree. She also was sure their guest had noticed with glee her cut lip. The whole situation had been shameful.

After dinner, Lady Jayne had had the overwhelming desire to visit the gardens by moonlight, and Grayson had accompanied her, with just a curt nod to Mina. She had run to hide in her room, and had waited all night for Alexander to knock on the door, in equal parts frightened and wishful for the eventuality. At last, she had fallen asleep, exhausted by the different scenarios her imagination was vividly painting in front of her, in regard to Grayson's delay.

The next morning, she got up from the immense bed and prepared herself to exit the oppressing confinement of those walls.

With apprehension at first, and then more boldly, she ambled through the wide corridors on the same floor her chambers were located, touching the gilded frames of the ancient paintings scattered about, admiring the rich upholstery and the lavish décor. The house almost had a too mundane appearance to her, as if it couldn't possibly harbor such a devious personality as the one of its owner. A mental hospital with bars on the windows and restraints on the beds would suit better Alexander's inclinations, she thought with a deploring grin.

Mina moved towards the other extreme of the second story's wing, until she stood in front of a large, heavy mahogany door: unlike all the others, this was ajar, and she wondered if it had been left so on purpose, for her sole benefit.

Two voices could be heard, a man and a woman's, and trembling she finally recognized they belonged to Grayson and Lady Jayne. She took two steps back in overwhelming horror, because it was now apparent her husband was amorously entertaining yesterday's guest, without a single care about being discovered by his wife. Or maybe expecting to be discovered, but Mina couldn't fathom why. It all was so vulgar. She had just been forced to marry a crass, boorish individual, who hadn't the slightest idea about anything else, but pure, base behavior: it was revolting.

She brought a hand to her mouth, to cover the scream that was threatening to escape her lips, a lashing pang lacerating her heart. Trying not to make any noise, she retraced her steps, until she found herself in front of the magnificent main staircase. She grasped the richly decorated balustrade with a shaking hand, and tried to calm herself down for long minutes. Her chest was heaving wildly, but she was sure it was not jealousy what she was feeling. No, she decided at that point with determination, that painful stab to her most inner fibers, had another specific name: it was an affront to her basic dignity, to have to witness what she had just had. Alexander Grayson was insulting her openly, and she felt outraged. That was all that there was to it, and to Mina it seemed plenty.

She abruptly decided she couldn't stay in that house a minute more. She couldn't face Lady Jayne and her eternally smug smile, and the beast of her husband. Rushing to her boudoir, she retrieved her coat, gloves and hat, and ran out of the stately portico, while attempting to put on her garments in a frenzy.

She stopped a coach, and asked the chauffeur to drive her to Bethlehem Memorial Hospital. She finished arranging her rebellious hair under the hat and, finally mildly satisfied with her overall presentable appearance, she descended the vehicle and approached the stairs to the hospital, a pleasant, fake smile now plastered on her features, for her father's benefit.

"Oh, Mina, what are you doing here?" was the surprised reaction of the old doctor, when Mina ran after him in the hallways of the facility. He hugged her with relish, and then inquired "So, how fares today the new Mrs. Grayson?"

"I'm fine, father. Very fine." Mina purposefully accompanied the words with the sweetest smile she possessed. "But I came here just to make sure that everything was in order with the documents Mr. Grayson promised to send you…"

"Oh, yes, yes, Mina. Everything is in order. You were not worried about that, were you? Mr. Grayson is a man of his word, and he loves you very much. I saw how he was looking at you on your first dance. Everybody did." Dr. Murray chuckled in embarrassment, and started walking briskly towards his office. "Would you come for a moment with me? I need to tell you something very puzzling," his expression now showing worrying mixed with uncertainty.

Mina eyed him with curiosity, but followed him in silence. "What did you want to tell me?" she inquired a little too eagerly, after taking a seat on the sofa in front of the large desk.

Her father tried to busy himself for a minute or two with the papers and books haphazardly placed in front of him, and then he said, clearing his throat, "Now Mina, I don't want you to get agitated. You didn't do anything wrong, and Mr. Grayson is a very influential man, and you couldn't have chosen better… I know at the beginning I was skeptical of such haste, but in the end I couldn't have had a better son-in-law. He has been very gracious with the little problem I had… I'm sure you'll be very happy with him, and he will give you the life I never could…"

Mina was becoming progressively more agitated, with Dr. Murray's ramblings. "Father, what happened?" she at last asked, a terrible presentiment taking hold of her mind.

The doctor passed a hand through his hair. "Mina, it's nothing bad." He chuckled nervously. "In fact, it's good news."

A few more minutes of silence passed, while Dr. Murray rearranged neatly the papers on his desk. At last, he looked up. "It's Jonathan Harker."

"Is he dead?" Mina asked with a very small voice, dread apparent in her tone.

"No, no, Mina. Quite the contrary. He turned up today. And everything has been explained with the Police: he was not even in the country at the time of Lord Davenport's death. He had been sent to an urgent meeting on the Continent by Grayson himself, and it seemed his involvement with the murder was just an honest mistake on Grayson's part. Well, no harm done there, eh? And I don't want you to blame your husband: he was very nice to send me a letter explaining everything just today."

Mina couldn't keep the shaking out of her voice. "Yes, father, that's good news," her whole demeanor betraying however quite the opposite sentiment.

At the Manor, Alexander Grayson had been pacing restlessly the hall for the better part of the morning. "She has disappeared. She's nowhere to be found, Van Helsing," he stated in a frantic tone, with all the countenance of a lunatic.

The doctors sighed in annoyance. "Alexander, calm yourself down. I'm sure she'll be back soon."

"How do you know that?! They've taken her from me, again!" He grasped Van Helsing by the collar."And you are no help to me! I need the vaccine, now! I need to go out and search for her!" he hissed dangerously.

Van Helsing swatted his hand away with contempt. "You know it takes time for the serum to be produced. We don't have enough for the procedure!"

"I want it done anyway!"

"It will do you no good. And stop being a baby!" he finished with a reproving glare to the vampire.

Finally, a carriage was heard stopping in front of the main stairs, and the doctor went to peer through the window. "Here you are. Mrs. Grayson has safely returned to Carfax." Van Helsing sneered. "Order and justice have been reestablished." He turned and gloatingly stared at Alexander. "If you can spare me your antics for the remainder of the morning, I would like now to go to the laboratory and proceed with my work. The next batch of the serum will be ready in a few days, if you would be so gracious to let me work in peace." He grabbed his suitcase with his medical instruments, and approached the door to the laboratory downstairs. "Mrs. Grayson," he said gruffly to the newcomer, before descending the stairs in haste, with a shook of his head.

Mina greeted Van Helsing with a distracted nod, before the doctor disappeared in the bowels of the mansion. She took a few, slow steps inside and stared at Alexander with a vacuous look, as if she couldn't see him at all. She then uttered, in a very low voice, "Jonathan is fine, he's here in London again, and didn't kill Lord Davenport after all."

She didn't had the time to say more on the matter, because Grayson was upon her, shaking her by the arms, a furious fire blazing in his eyes. "You cannot go out without my supervision!" he shouted.

As if not hearing the agitated words, Mina continued, in her same, ominously calm tone. "It was all a vulgar trick."

The grip on her arms tightened. "You hear me?!" Grayson now roared. "Your life is in danger!"

"It was the cheap trick of a beast," she repeated as if to herself.

"I forbid you to leave again this house without my express permission."

"And you knew it all along."

"Ilona, are you listening?" he bellowed in her ear.

"Mina," she corrected with a strange smile, staring for the first time at Grayson in the eyes. "My name is Mina."

Grayson shook her fragile body with even more violence, shoving her at last towards the nearby sofa with a terrible growl. She fell and remained splayed on the floor, as if she couldn't find any reason to get up again.

Alexander's face was very close to hers now, she could feel his breath scorching her skin. He forced their lips together, moving his body against her, so that she was truly trapped. She sensed her blouse being torn, and his oppressive weight on her chest. She couldn't breathe with all that lurid proximity, and the possessive touches, but somehow it didn't come to matter anymore today. His hands were on her thighs now, separating her legs. A distant part of her mind registered a sudden pain, and frantic movements of the beast above her. Alexander pushed an invading tongue in her mouth, biting her lips, and then it was over. She grasped an arm of the sofa and uncertainly stood up. Still heavily breathing from the exertion, Grayson watched her go slowly towards the stairs.

The next day, Mina woke up in a sedated state of mind. It was a new sensation to her, and insofar a puzzling one. The rest of her life seemed at once a remote occurrence, and the present only a shadow, as if she had just joined a new world, filled with immaterialities. She neatly arranged her hair in a fetching fashion, singing all the while a childhood tune to herself, and appeared again downstairs after two o'clock in the afternoon, wondering briefly if it was at all possible for her to have taken the best part of the morning just to get dressed. In the end, she decided it didn't matter to her in the slightest.

The house was silent, but not for long. She suddenly heard raised voices coming from the study, and was about to rush upstairs again, when the door opened abruptly and Jonathan Harker emerged. His semblant was contorted in fury, evidently after a shouting match with Grayson, but to Mina his appearance appealed at once at something hidden, something sweet buried in the recesses of her heart.

"Jonathan…" she greeted him with a lost smile, as if she had just seen a ghost from a long forgotten life.

"Mrs. Grayson." Harker's stare was hard, and pierced her heart with disapproval. "Don't worry, this is the last time you'll see me in your house. I've just handed my resignation to your husband." A grimace of disgust accompanied the last words.

"But you, Mina, you are worse than him! How could you have done this?" He gestured wildly to the mansion in general. "How could you have done this to me and to you? I know I never could have given you these riches, but it's truly appalling what you have sunk to!"

Mina's heart filled with unbearable sadness. Her Jonathan was right, and she didn't have anything with which to replay to his justified reproaches. She lowered her head in shame.

"Well, Mrs. Grayson, I wish you a wonderful life in this mansion," at last he spat. He was gone in a moment, and Mina was finally able to look up again.

Alexander was staring at her from the doorframe of the study, an inquisitive, hard expression on his face. She passed a shaking hand on her cheek, and found it wet. Tears had become her only companion for that day and the ones to come.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter IX

"We are going to dine out today. Dress accordingly."

Those had been the only words her husband had spoken to Mina all day long. When without business engagements, he now spent his days barricaded in his study, and Mina hadn't found yet reasons to interrupt his reproving silence. She couldn't forget his terrible stare at seeing her tears, shed profusely at Jonathan and the life she had lost forever. Terrified to walk downstairs, Mina had opted for spending the last days barricaded herself in her chambers. She shook despairingly her head, and rearranged again for the fifth time her dress in front of the large mirror of her boudoir. She wished she could be as charming as Lady Jayne, always at ease in all kinds of social situations, and then she hated herself for even thinking it.

For ten days now, after that last, heart-wrenching encounter with her Jonathan, Mina had in vain tried to make sense of her mind.

She should despise her husband for deceiving her into marrying him. She should hate him for his abominable treatment of her. She should abhor him with all her forces for consorting openly with Lady Jayne in her own house. It was all so despicable.

But then she pictured Alexander's reverent smile when he called her 'his beloved Ilona', and she wished to be that woman that evidently he loved so much. He was always kind to her, when he called her 'his Ilona', she reminisced fondly. She recognized it was a sick kind of feeling.

He had pursued her in the most shameful of ways, had blackmailed her to marry him, and lied to her over and over again, and then he seemed to have simply forgotten her. It was impossible not to notice the complicit glances between him and Lady Jayne, at any given time they were together. And she had been at their house already on three more separate occasions, with one pretext or another. She had always been received with the utmost delight by Alexander, Mina mournfully considered.

The only explanation her tired mind could come up with, was that he simply had decided to ruin her life as if it had been all a game for him. She felt cheated of a future, and love and happiness, by a monster she had been too weak to resist.

In the end, nobody else could be blamed but her, she recognized with brutal honesty, while removing the pins on her head and trying to rearrange her hair for the third time in a fashionable style, or at least one her husband wouldn't find exception with.

With a sigh and a last hopeless look at the mirror, she left the room and descended the stairs of the stately manor. Alexander was waiting for her in the hall, impeccably dressed. He looked at her with a cursory glance and said, "I don't like that dress. Go change."

Mina's heart sank. "But we will be late," she tried to explain.

"It's doesn't matter, go change. Something more cheerful, we are not going to a funeral," he added curtly while Mina was already climbing up the stairs, her body shaking lightly with something akin to despair.

The coach ride was painstakingly long, an oppressive silence dominating the crisp night air, and Mina's forsaken heart. They stepped down the vehicle and penetrated into a maze of barely lit, narrow alleys, until they reached their destination.

Taking a seat beside Alexander in the glaringly obscene club, Mina asked, "What are we doing here?" She felt lost. Scantily clad women were dancing about, and the whole ambiance spelled debauchery to her. Lady Jayne was also there with them at a nearby table, with a new conquest for the night, and all the will to make the most of it. She kept shooting sly glances at Grayson, while intent on proceeding with her amorous advances on the other man.

Alexander moved closer to his wife on the sofa. Grasping her thigh under the table, he said, "Why, I thought you would find yourself in your natural element here. I remember I had to rescue you from a similar environment, not a few weeks ago." He started clapping loudly to a particularly indecent performance of one of the dancers of the facility.

Lady Jayne approached them and took a seat beside Mina. "Oh, Alexander, I don't know how you do find these places," she said with delight, examining enthusiastically the different couples around them, in different stages of intoxication. "And Mrs. Grayson, you are here too!" she exclaimed, as if Mina had just happened to appear there from thin air by some sort of astounding magician's trick.

"How do you do, Lady Wetherby?" was the composed response she received from the woman.

"Come, come, I don't want to see this long face, dear Mina! We are all here to have fun", Jayne exhorted, placing her chair closer to the other woman, and leaning to whisper in her ear. "You will not be able to retain your husband for long, if you bore him. Take it as a very good advice from a woman with much more experience in the matters of the heart." She smiled knowingly at her, and then she added in a louder tone, "Our Alexander is a scoundrel, always seeking new thrills!" She giggled mirthfully, with a meaningful glance at the object of her desire.

Grayson splayed his arms on the sofa's headrest and crossed his legs with a favorable grin, is if he were king of the facilities, and of the two women's hearts. He nodded to Lady Jayne, a salacious expression on his face. "You know me very well, Madam," he said while grasping her hand to kiss it sensuously. Mina lowered her stare.

"Here, Mrs. Grayson, I will order now something that will make you right at ease with the crowd," Jayne stated garrulously, with a nod to one of the waiters. "It's called absinthe, you absolutely must try it!"

Grayson eyed Mina with an intense stare. "Mina is no stranger to this kind of entertainment. Maybe is just my company that she doesn't appreciate. But a few nights ago, she seemed to have the best of her times with Miss Westenra, I can assure you, Lady Wetherby." He threw an admonishing glare at his wife.

Jayne looked at the man with glee. "Oh, poor Alexander! Are we feeling mistreated, today?

"Women have been cruel to me lately," he stated, shaking lightly his head in mock melancholy. "Even you, Lady Jayne, are abandoning me today. I see your date looking our way with the most distressed expression. He wishes you back. Would you be so heartless to leave me, now that I have tasted the sublime pleasure of your company?"

Lady Jayne was now gloating. "Dear Mr. Grayson, you know I value immensely our friendship. But you knew that today I had a prior engagement. I hope you can forgive me if we rush off now. But I will promise to visit you tomorrow, if dear Mina will have me."

"Of course, you are always welcome in Mr. Grayson's house," Mina managed to say, a tense smile on her lips.

Lady Jayne was gone, and Mina started trembling. Without looking at Alexander, she asked, "Why are you doing this to me?" Her voice was a barely audible cry.

Grayson chuckled. "I'm not doing anything to you. You are always so melodramatic. Try to enjoy yourself a little bit more, will you?" he said, while leisurely lighting a cigar. He took a few drags with relish, and slowly puffed the smoke, with a devilish glance at Mina.

"That's why I'm here? To enjoy myself?" the woman questioned, a sad smile on her lips.

"Yes, Mrs. Grayson, I want you to enjoy yourself." He grinned at her. "The night is young, and there are many amenities in this club, not counting my upcoming surprise for you." He kept dragging on the cigar with nonchalance.

"Oh, I thought Lady Jayne was my surprise." She pursed her lips in disgust.

"No, Mrs. Grayson, I have something better in store for you." A contemptuous smile appeared on his face. "I've just brought you here to see your fiancée," Alexander said at last, with a grandiose gesture towards the right end of the room, where a particularly noisy group of people were assembled. "Am I not the best husband?"

Mina looked to that direction, unconsciously following Alexander's hand, and noticed at once her Jonathan; by the looks of it, he had been drinking liberally, and was now being mildly entertained by the lewd advances of one of the dancers. He seemed to be having a splendid time of himself.

"Do you miss him?" Alexander hissed into her ear, with a vague, complicit tone.

"No." She lowered her stare.

"Mrs. Grayson, I urge you not to be so coy. You can tell me," he added with a grimace. "Do you wish to be with him at this moment?"

"No."

"Let's see if it's true," Grayson uttered with a grin, while abruptly standing up and dragging forcefully the woman towards the back of the club.

"Where are we going?"

"I've booked a room just for us. So you can show me the love you have for me."

He slammed the door of the dingy alcove, tackily decorated with faded velvets and some sort of feathers plastered indiscriminately on the walls. There was a small bed on one side and poorly-lighting lamps everywhere. The accommodation was fairly depressing.

"Do you miss your Jonathan?" Alexander asked, while throwing himself with abandon on the bed.

"Wouldn't your Lady Jayne miss you instead, today?" Mina managed to say with a piqued voice.

"Alas, no, she has found her entertainment for the evening." Grayson suspired in exaggerated, theatrical distress. "And so have I." He stared at her predatorily. "What are you going to do to entertain me tonight, now that our beloved Lady Jayne is out of the way, and your Jonathan despises your choice of me with all his heart?"

"You are despicable."

"You have already told me that, if memory serves me well."

"I wish to go home."

"Not a chance, my dear." He stood up and moved over to her. "You can think of your Jonathan while you make love to me," he enticed her, one of his hands moving lasciviously to her hips. "Think that he's just a few feet over, heartbroken by your betrayal, think of him while I do this," he whispered, while throwing her viciously over the bed with a swift motion. His weight was soon over her, his breath on her face.

"Let me go!" the woman screamed in outrage.

"I saw you crying when your Jonathan was at the house. Do you wish it was him touching you now?" His hand descended between her legs. "Do you?"

"No."

"And now?" He started massaging rhythmically her most private parts. "Do you wish you had married him instead?"

"No," Mina repeated, with an uncontrollable moan escaping her lips.

"It's my turn to say that I don't believe you," he hissed in her ear, while expediently unbuttoning his trousers.

"Mina, do you hate me now?" he at last asked, ramming inside of her with relish.

Mina gasped and trembled in his arms. "You called me Mina," she said in wonderment.

"Are you thinking of him?"

"No."

"What are you thinking of?" he asked while maintaining a sweet, undulating rhythm, that was shaking Mina's body with waves of pleasure.

She was gripping his shoulders with passion. "That you called me Mina. Am I not your Ilona anymore?" she asked timidly, between a moan and another, which she was trying unsuccessfully to stifle.

"You will be always my Ilona." He kissed her fervently. "But you are also my beloved Mina, if you wish it to be so. Are you my Mina?"

"Yes."

"Never forget that. I love you, Mina. Do you love your Jonathan?"

"No."

Alexander gave a forceful push and exhaled in ecstasy. "Tell me you don't regret having married me," he whispered urgently, his head resting on her breasts.

Mina went silent.

He looked up and stared at the blue pool of her eyes. His expression hardened, and he gave a nervous laugh. Readjusting his trousers in haste, he shook his head and left the room, slamming the door behind him.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter X

Renfield prided himself to be a man of unshakeable convictions. And he had become convinced of one, solitary fact, in the last few days in that haunted mansion. That he was one inch short of killing both Alexander and Mina for their maddening, ongoing behavior. A new certainty had been creeping on him, that Carfax Manor had become a mental asylum, and nobody had bothered to notify him of the different arrangement.

Walking slowly through the spectacular, well-groomed gardens of the house, as it had been his habit every morning since they had moved to the mansion, he tightened unconsciously the grip he was maintaining on the useless book in his hands. There was no peace and quiet in that forsaken place, to read at leisure anymore.

Something needed to be done, and fast.

It had been already several days now, that he had been treated to witnessing the most pathetic spectacle pertaining to the vast range of human behavior, or – in his employer's case – of 'undead' behavior, if there even was something like that to be properly classified. He admitted to himself he didn't have a whole lot of experience about how a four hundred years old vampire was supposed to behave, but he had an inkling that what Grayson was doing, had finally reached the supreme level of madness. He had solemnly promised his lawyer that he would be able to keep up the charade with his wife, when in reality all Renfield had been able to notice was a slippery slope of childish behavior on his part, in these last days.

They should have killed that cursed Jonathan Harker, as he had wisely advised, but Grayson had flatly refused. And now his employer was prey of the most distressing fits of jealousy, an undead was capable of having. The present scenario didn't bode well for a speedy resolution: in the lawyer's opinion, Grayson was slowly losing the tenuous grip on reality he had been able to maintain so far, not counting the delusional conviction of having found the reincarnation of his dead wife, that is. He had even cancelled already two dates with Lady Jayne, and the lawyer had become very worried about that.

Renfield was not an ungrateful man. He recognized he had an inextinguishable moral debt with Alexander, who had saved him from certain death on more than one occasion, and had given him a new life, and an exciting one at that. As kindred spirits, he had developed an immense respect for his employer, once he had discovered the secrets and the tribulations he had had to endure for the past centuries.

He maybe was slightly biased, but even the most gruesome aspects of Grayson's fight for survival, didn't appalled him, as they should have done to any normal, breathing human being. He couldn't but consider that, from a strictly logical point of view, Alexander had done just what was required for his own continuance. He considered him nothing more and nothing less than a man with a terrible disease, an infirmity that wouldn't let him die, and just condemned him to an eternal life of misery, threatening the most appreciated part of his existence, his humanity.

This last adventure of theirs in London was going to provide the vampire with the very tools to regain his place among the living and obliterate the enemies that had made him a monster. The destruction of the Order and the retrieval of their secrets, had become Renfield's mission too, and he had worked with Grayson with passion to get every day a step closer to what had become their common objective.

And then Miss Mina Murray had appeared.

Renfield was still not very sure about how everything had started to go terribly wrong from there. He recognized that nobody was perfect, and least of all, a tortured soul like the one of a very old vampire. Maybe living so long and being hunted and tormented by his enemies, had made him slightly confused, in the course of the long centuries he had had to live. Memories are a sweet thing, but they also can be agony for a person forced to remember every day the gruesome death of his beloved wife.

Yes, Renfield repeated to himself, while taking a seat with a sigh on one of the benches of the garden, that was it: Grayson had just become confused, and in the process, he had put in jeopardy the very goal they had strived so much to accomplish, during all those long years. Certainly, it had been a blunder of spectacular dimensions, but who was he to judge the mysterious laws of attraction? And he was sure everybody deserved to find happiness wherever they could, even in a delusional conviction to have found the specter of their dead wife, bizarrely brought back to life. There was no need to be too judgmental about that.

Of course, then everything had gone downhill from there: if Grayson had only been a nice twenty-some lad with his first crush, a lot of heartbreak could have been avoided; but, Grayson being what he was, he had had to bring things to the extreme. Renfield shook his head in strong disapproval, at the thought of the series of demented, sick, torturous expedients Alexander had used with Mina, just to make her marry him. Alas, what they obtained in the end, had been no fairytale.

Presently, Mina and Alexander were not speaking to each other, to put it mildly. This marriage business was not doing a bit of good to either of them, and had all the potential to ruin their carefully laid plans about the Order.

He felt mildly uncomfortable with the methods employed by Alexander with his relentless pursuit of Mina, but he was sure that now it was too late to undo what had already been done. One way or another, now Mina had entered their world, and the sooner she embraced every aspect of it, the better. Renfield was a pragmatist at heart, and had even tried to explain to his stubborn employer, what the best course of action should be. Now Mina was one of them, and secrecy couldn't be maintained forever, and was no longer an option. Mina was the key: he needed to convince her to make peace, so to speak, with her husband, and then the vampire would be able to return to his more pressing matters with a restored mind.

It was undeniable that Grayson's secrets were of a monstrous nature, and he was mortally scared of revealing them to the love of his life, but Renfield wanted to think that Mina had an understanding nature. He liked her very much: she was a scientist, and shouldn't get scared too easily by a little bit of illness. Really, thinking of it in a rational fashion, what Alexander had, was nothing different from a disease of the body, the likes of which Mina should have seen aplenty in her laboratory. There was no reason why she wouldn't understand. Anyway, if things came to worse, they could always dispose of her, but Renfield was sure there would be no need for that: he was also a romantic at heart.

The realization was momentous. To ensure the success of all their previous scheming against the Order, it was his duty now not to remain idle. That would be the first time he'd do something in open disregard to his employer's wishes, but as the logical, rational person he knew himself to be, he considered that it was the best for all the parties involved, and especially, for the sake of the lifelong plan they had put in motion. It was his moral imperative to help those who couldn't help themselves.

With the warm glow of righteousness burning confidently inside his chest, he abruptly stood up and walked back to the house, the unread book now abandoned on the bench.

He climbed the stairs and knocked on Mrs. Grayson's door. Mina greeted him with her usual sad smile. Emboldened by the not completely discourteous reception, he proceeded with his plan. "Sorry to invade your chambers, but I have an important message to deliver to you. Mr. Grayson has requested your presence in the laboratory, at once." He didn't dare to add anything more, since he had learned that the best lies are the simple ones. "If you wish, I can accompany you there."

"No, thank you, Mr. Renfield. I already know the way." She turned to the mirror, and gave a cursory glance at her irreparably plain dress. "Are you sure he wants me there?" she inquired nervously.

"Very sure, Mrs. Grayson."

With a nod and a thank you, she was on her way.

The staircase to the laboratory was scantly lit, and Mina descended cautiously, wary of her steps and afraid of the mood she would find Alexander in.

After their visit to that club, she had been blaming herself for each and every one of the severe stares she had received from Alexander thereafter, on the rare moments in which they had actually managed to meet in that vast mansion.

He had asked her about Jonathan, and Mina recognized guiltily she had behaved in a horrible way. She had been sure she didn't love Jonathan, but hadn't found the strength to admit it to Alexander. Probably because she had still been angered by his treatment of her in front of Lady Jayne.

Oh, it was all too confusing. She felt pity for Jonathan, even if he now hated her, and justly so. She felt manipulated by Alexander. She felt betrayed by him, each time he laid eyes on Lady Jayne. She felt as if her life was not hers anymore. Consequently, she had been forced to spend the subsequent days locked in her room, because she was now unable to look at the man in the eyes, and didn't know what she could possibly tell him, even if she had been capable of having any sort of conversation with him. She was sure he despised her now. And today he had called for her. Maybe he just wanted to show her some sort of new discovery, she wondered with hope, and her heart warmed at the remembrance of her last visit there.

The vast space was mostly empty, now that all the machineries had been transported to a more appropriate building downtown, with sufficient room for their experiments, but maybe Alexander had retained some of his favorite toys at the mansion. She walked further in the semi-darkness of the place, until she heard muffled noises coming from an adjacent door. The other room was equally dark and slightly smaller, with a maze of strange apparatuses scattered about, which made even more difficult for Mina to reach the spot from which it seemed the voices were coming.

She peered over a tall console, and uncertainly navigated towards the center of the room. She heard an electric fizzle, like the one of the machines Professor Van Helsing had lent her once to experiment with at the University, and she proceeded more boldly in the direction of the noise.

A piercing scream froze the blood in her veins. She recognized at once that voice: it was Alexander's. She blindly ran towards the cry, and found her husband bound to a sort of infernal machine, his hair disheveled and his body still shaking from the aftershocks. Alexander was semi-naked, and she clearly saw the painful tension in each one of his tortured muscles. It was a scene vaguely reminiscent of a crucifixion. She was at his side, holding one of his restrained hands in anguish, without even realizing how she had gotten there.

"Alexander, what is this?" she asked with a terrified voice.

Still shaking with the aftershocks of the discharge, Grayson turned his head to look at her. "What are you doing here? Go away!" he bellowed, a terrified look of his own now in his glance.

Professor Van Helsing emerged from the shadows to interrupt the heart-wrenching exchange. "Oh great, we have company," he said in a very annoyed tone. "Since you are here, Mrs. Grayson, make yourself useful. Come here," he ordered sternly.

Still confused by the whole grotesque scene, but unwilling to disobey her most revered teacher, Mina walked mechanically to his station. She couldn't stop staring at Alexander, as if she had been hypnotized by the recent events.

Van Helsing sighed with impatience. "Mina, I need you to be alert. Start monitoring his heartbeat, while I recalibrate the instruments."

She looked down at the machine and her face blanched further. "It's barely beating. You're killing him. You are killing him!" She heard herself screaming, and sadly recognized she must have looked now like one of her father's patients.

"Let's not go into hysterics, shall we?" Van Helsing admonished her with a shake of his head. "That lecture is better than what he had before."

From the other end of the room, Grayson joined their slightly deranged banter. "Van Helsing, I want her out of here! And let me down, now! You cursed fool!"

The doctor plainly ignored the bound man's urgent plea.

"I will kill you with my own bare hands! I will peel you like a grape!" was the inhuman cry that followed.

Raising his eyes in an ineffectual prayer to a cruel god, Van Helsing tried to calm down the other, slightly more rational, hysterical person in the room. "Mrs. Grayson, Alexander suffers from a medical condition, it's as plain as that, and I urge you to be professional about it. I have been treating him during the past fifteen years, and we are very close to a vaccine. Given your former interest in medicine," he stressed meaningfully the last sentence, "I will permit you to assist me, but keep in mind I will not have you here if you are unable to control yourself."

Mina's training kicked in place, accompanied by a slight hurt at her teacher's rebuff. "Yes, Professor," she said with a vaguely calmer voice.

"Well then, in this case, I do need your help. You will monitor the vital signs of the patient. Here," he added, showing the woman a series of machines attached to her poor husband's abused body. "Ready?"

"Yes, Professor."

"Here we go, then." Another terrible electric shock jolted the bound man. Alexander screamed again in agony. Mina controlled barely her own scream, under the severe gaze of her professor.

"It's beating normally, now," she hazarded to say, with a trembling voice.

"Good. Let's prepare for phase two." Van Helsing went to move another horrendous machine in dangerous proximity of her poor husband. It had a cylindrical form, and ominous needles were protruding from its center. The doctor placed it over Grayson's chest.

Once in motion, the needles pierced suddenly Alexander's heart. Mina watched, frozen on the spot: her husband was in unbearable agony, and she couldn't do anything to help.

She proceeded to faint, a soft thud barely audible, while her body crashed almost delicately on the floor.

"Oh great," Van Helsing sighed in plain irritation, rolling his eyes.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter XI

Alexander Grayson was sitting at his desk, impeccably dressed in a fetching grey pinstriped suit. His hair was combed to perfection. He eyed Renfield with a murderous look. "Was that your doing?"

"Yes, Sir."

"You are fired."

Renfield didn't move from the comfortable armchair he had chosen for the difficult conversation. "It needed to be done," at last he stated hermetically, staring unflinchingly at his counterpart.

"Really? It needed to be done?" Grayson's tone was disparaging. "I'm going to fire you, and then I'm going to kill you, and then I'm going to fire you again!" He slammed his fists on the table, papers flying all around.

"She deserves to know the truth," was the second bit of information the lawyer circumspectly released, a sage expression on his face.

Grayson found it profoundly annoying. "You think you know everything, eh?" He stood up and walked to the window, playing for a bit with the sunrays touching his hand. "Do you know what she will do once she discovers what I am?" he added pensively.

A knock was heard on the door, and Grayson's face suddenly morphed into an expression of absolute terror: the last thing he needed today was for his wife to come and announce her definitive departure. He couldn't bear that too, today, he simply couldn't.

Fortunately for him, it was only Van Helsing, one of his annoying, conceited grins plastered on his face. "Well, well, I see we are all here," he greeted, with a quick nod to Renfield. "I'm glad to announce that Mrs. Grayson is recuperating splendidly, and has manifested her wish to join us as soon as she finishes redressing."

"What?! Is she coming down? And you have done nothing to prevent this?! I order you to sedate her immediately!" Grayson positively resembled a madman.

"I most surely will not do such a thing."

"It's an order!"

"Calm yourself down!"

"What did you tell her? What does she know?" He hoped fervently the damage was not irreparable.

"Just that you have a medical condition, a very special one, and that I've been your physician for the past fifteen years.

Grayson was mildly relieved. "Good, good, that's not so bad. We can keep the rest to ourselves," he said, stroking contemplatively his moustache.

"You yourself need to tell her the rest, Sir" the sphinx that had become Renfield pronounced, all his infinite wisdom dripping copiously from every pore of his face.

"Have you all lost your mind today? What is this, a conspiracy?! Do you want also to rip out my heart and throw it to the dogs?!" He made a fist and smashed one of the windowpanes with enormous satisfaction. "I forbid everyone to speak. Everyone!" he added with a meaningful glower directed especially at the traitorous lawyer.

Renfield and Van Helsing sighed almost in unison.

"Things will stay as they are, forever! That is my last word, and I don't want to be contradicted." Again Renfield bore the brunt of Grayson's malevolent glare.

In the midst of all the shouting, an approaching carriage was heard. Moving to the window again, Grayson said, "It's Lady Wetherby. Good." He passed a hand through his hair. "At least one thing is going according to plan, in this house!"

He moved towards the door in long strides and shouted in the direction of the two men, "I still have three hours of the serum. I will be having a romp in the hay with Lady Jayne, quite literally, I'm afraid." He sighed rather exaggeratedly. "I'm very close to becoming a member of the Order, and you two are just ruining everything, with your meddling!" He grabbed his coat and added, "I prohibit both of you to say another word to my wife, is that understood?"

The two men nodded in unison, again.

"And Renfield, if you prize your life in the slightest, you will impede that my wife leaves this house, under any circumstances!" He was gone soon afterwards, with an ear-shattering slam of the door.

While redressing in fresh clothes after her fright, Mina had tried, for the best part of an hour, to make sense of what she had witnessed in the laboratory. The only incontrovertible conclusion was that her poor husband was very sick, but nothing else of the doctor's explanation had any medical basis. Until she had embarrassingly fainted, she had been monitoring his vital signs, and she didn't like at all what she had seen.

A pang of anguish pierced her heart. In the course of the last hour, a completely new universe had opened in front of her eyes. She seemed to have forgotten and forgiven all her husband's previous faults and his treatment of her, with the sole recalling of the torturous medical treatment she had seen Alexander being subjected to. That scene in cellar was the only thing she could keep replaying in her head, in a sort of sick fascination. And she had discovered she couldn't think ill of Alexander anymore, if the poor man was being plagued by a mortal disease.

Mina now just felt guilty for all the doubts she had experienced before. Alexander was just a man in need of help. Alexander was not despicable anymore. Alexander was just her husband, and she was his wife.

Her novel state of mind had come as a surprise, but now of one thing she was suddenly sure: that she refused to lose him, she refused with all her heart. She would do whatever was necessary to save his life. Reaching resolutely the door, she climbed down the stairs in a hurry, only to find that her husband had just left the premises, and with Lady Jayne, Renfield was solicitous to inform her; Mina had frown at the unpleasant news and at the mention of that hateful name. Van Helsing was also nowhere to be found, having left soon after Grayson, for the University.

Mina decided it was imperative to get at once clear answers to the dreadful questions that had become foremost in her mind since that experience in the laboratory, and was determined to extract them from her professor, by whatever means necessary. She ran upstairs to retrieve her purse, hat, gloves and coat, and approached the main door, only to be stopped by the surreptitious appearance of the hulk that was Renfield, placidly standing right in front of her. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Grayson, but I've received orders not to let you leave the house."

She eyed him in mild puzzlement. "Am I a prisoner now?"

"You are married to a man with powerful enemies, who has given strict instructions, to you and me."

Mina sighed. "Mr. Renfield, I don't wish to be discourteous, but this is my house, and I advise you not to interfere in my affairs."

"I suggest you calm down before making any hasty decisions. May I offer you a brandy?"

Mina laughed nervously. "Lately everybody tells me to calm down. But I'm not the crazy one, am I?"

Her penetrating, beseeching stare was going to be Renfield's undoing. He averted her eyes, and went to prepare a drink for the both of them. "Come sit with me," he said at last in a kind tone. "I will tell you everything that is in my power to disclose."

Enthused by the offer, Mina stiffly took a seat on the sofa opposite the lawyer. "Very well, Mr. Renfield, what's going on in this house?" She stared at him defiantly.

The lawyer cleared his throat and began. "You need to know that Mr. Grayson loves you very much, and it would kill him if you ever left him. He's also a very sick man, but Dr. Van Helsing has been helping him for years now, and we think we are close to a cure. I cannot tell you more about the nature of his disease. Lastly, he's a man with powerful enemies, and has been forced lately to consort with people like Lady Jayne Wetherby, to push forward his scheme of getting rid of the whole lot of them. I assure you that Jayne is no threat to you," he added as an afterthought, glancing at Mina meaningfully, and the woman lowered her stare in embarrassment.

Renfield continued with his recounting. "I've been working with him for the last twelve years, and we are very close to our goal, unless you decide to leave him. I cannot foresee what he will do if you abandon him." He sighed in distress, lowering his stare to his glass. "So, as you can see, the success of our enterprise rests ultimately upon your shoulders."

He quietened at last, and slowly took a sip of liquor, hoping with all his forces that the semi-truthful concoction he had just come up with, would suffice to retain the woman in the house, at least for a few hours more, until Grayson returned. He didn't want to be held responsible for his wife's disappearance too, after what he had just done to the both of them.

Mina stared at the man with a puzzled face. "I'm not leaving my husband," she clarified with conviction, "I was just trying to go and see Professor Van Helsing, to know more about his disease."

Renfield drew a relieved breath. "That's splendid news, then." He smiled at her with fondness. "But I cannot let you leave the house, anyway."

"This is ridiculous!" Mina cried in outrage. "I'm tired of these games, Mr. Renfield, and I'd appreciate if you would convey this message to your employer too!"

"Please, Mrs. Grayson, don't agitate yourself."

"I will leave this house whenever I please!"

It was at that moment that Alexander reappeared in the hall. In the frenzy of the discussion neither of them had heard the carriage approaching. His hair was a bit disheveled, and he bore a vaguely guilty expression. He advanced towards the liquor cabinet and served himself a drink, without acknowledging either of the people in the room. "Mrs. Grayson, I beg you not to make a scene with my lawyer: he's just following my orders," he clarified without turning, a cold tone in his voice.

"Alexander, how are you felling?" was the worried response he received from his wife. She had been mortally concerned for his health in the past few hours, but now couldn't find the courage to walk closer to him. She stood up and remained frozen to the spot beside the sofa, playing nervously with her gloves.

Grayson laughed a little maniacally. "I see. Not quite a good bargain this marriage of yours has turned out to be, eh? I reckon your Jonathan is in perfect health," he added dismissively.

"How could you say that?" Mina asked in outrage mixed with dread, while Renfield sighed in exasperation, not daring however to leave the premises, in case any of the present, deranged people needed an attitude adjustment from the only rational person at hand. Mina took two bold steps towards her husband, and stopped again. Without looking up, she said, "I was so scared for you." She finished with an audible sob.

"Are you crying now?" Alexander asked derisively.

"No," she clarified, wiping furtively her face with one of the gloves.

"Stop it, right now!"

Renfield grumbled in the background unintelligibly.

"I cannot," she whimpered pathetically.

"Don't cry, Ilona. You know that I cannot see you cry," Alexander at last uttered with a broken voice, his expression suddenly tenderer.

At the words, Mina started weeping with more energy.

Grayson ran to her, and took her in his strong, comforting arms. Mina relished the embrace and quietened somewhat her cries.

"I didn't want you to see that," he whispered in her ear with a defeated tone.

Placing both hands on his shoulders, she looked up at him. "How could you say such a thing?" She boldly passed a hand through his hair and stated, "You have an illness, and I want only to take care of you. I will be always here to take care of you."

"Do you mean it?" Alexander enquired in an uncertain tone.

"Yes, I mean it." The woman held his stare, transfixed. "Alexander, I'm sorry for making you doubt. I'm not sorry, I'm not sorry at all for having married you!"

"Oh, Ilona!" he said, tightening the hold he was firmly maintaining on her waist, and burying his head in the woman's neck, breathing in her inebriating scent. "Then go upstairs and wait for me," he said with a mischievous grin."I will be with you soon." He placed a reverent kiss on her forehead and watched in rapture his Ilona climbing the stairs in a hurry.

Throwing a sly glance at Renfield, who had remained comfortably seated during the whole exchange, sipping leisurely his whisky, he smiled to himself with in satisfaction: today hadn't turned as badly as he had expected, after all. He should have thanked the lawyer for his providential intervention, but he was decided not to give the man the satisfaction of being right. He deserved to suffer at length for his act of disobedience, and he would devise new methods of making the man highly uncomfortable during the next days, or years. But today he had more pressing engagements, that would soon require his full attention. He grinned leeringly at the thought of his Ilona waiting for him, and just for him, in her chambers.

He strolled to the library, signaling Renfield to follow him. He extracted his pocket watch, and played idly with it for some minutes. With a pleased sigh, he proceeded to inform his friend of what had transpired in his last rendezvous with Lady Jayne.

After half an hour, he climbed the stairs to the second story.

Today he had made great progress with his mistress: after their usual passionate lovemaking session, she had finally openly broached the subject of his upcoming induction into the Order. She disclosed to him that the leader of the Chapter had finally accepted the idea, provided he would hand out all the blueprints for his magnetic machine. She hadn't divulged any names yet, nevertheless Grayson hadn't been able to hide a victorious grin. He had then proceeded to take her again against a wall, and Lady Jayne had been utterly pleased with the overall performance.

And now his Ilona too, had finally come to her senses, and had remembered the love they once shared together: this had been a really perfect day.

Upon opening the door of his beloved's chambers, he found the room in semi-darkness. His Ilona was waiting for him on the bed, and she extended a hand to him. "Alexander, you are here," she said with an inviting smile, full of promises. "I need you," she finally admitted, to Grayson's utmost delight.

"I need you too, Ilona. I've missed you," he uttered, hovering over her and kissing fiercely her trembling lips.

"I want to make you happy, let me make you happy," Mina said in a beseeching voice, a solemn promise evident in her expression. She extended a hand to caress timidly the visible bulge in Grayson's trousers, as she had just learnt to do a few days before, at her husband's bequest.

Alexander grinned at her and made haste of getting rid of his clothes. He then straddled his Ilona and reverently unbuttoned her nightgown, until her perfect breasts were exposed. Mina didn't cover herself up this time. With a trembling hand, she resumed the bold caresses to the now bared, hardened member of her beloved. Alexander sighed in ecstasy.

He moved closer to her face, and Mina understood what was required of her. She tentatively licked the turgid flesh and then disclosed her lips, while Grayson delicately pushed the tip of his shaft into her mouth.

She hesitantly started sucking on it, looking fixedly up at Alexander in the eyes, to receive directions, and his ecstatic grin told her she was doing something good. Grayson pushed a little bit further, and Mina accepted with relish everything her husband had to give her. Finally, he grasped her by the hair with one hand and growled, "Swallow, my dear, swallow it all," while massaging sensuously her neck.

Mina couldn't but obey.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter XII

"Sorry, Ilona, but I cannot let you leave this house. It is too dangerous for you." Grayson looked at his beautiful wife with a regretful, but firm, expression.

"Please, Alexander. I just want to go see my father. And Mr. Renfield could accompany me." She turned to look at the lawyer with an expectant stare, which the latter promptly evaded.

Alexander eyed the both of them for some time, weighting the possibilities, and finally decided, "Oh well, then. You know I can't deny you anything." He lovingly caressed her cheek. "But promise me you'll be very careful, and you will not leave Renfield's side." He kissed her delicately on the lips and nodded at the lawyer, who made haste to grab his coat and hat, before exiting the house in company of Mrs. Grayson.

Mina climbed the stairs to the Hospital with a bright smile on her face, Renfield panting behind her, and trying to keep up with her swift pace.

"I'm just going inside my father's office. You can wait for me here, Mr. Renfield," she said gesturing to a couple of chairs in the main corridor. "It will not take long; I'm sure Dr. Murray will be soon with us: his rounds are almost up."

Without giving the man time to reply, she scurried into the room and closed the door. Walking to the back of the study, she found the door connecting with a ramp of stairs, leading to the old wing of the hospital. That musty passage was what her father always used, when he wished to leave discreetly the hospital, and Mina had known it for years. Today she was going to put that knowledge to good use: she exited to a narrow alley nearby the kitchens of the facility, and walked briskly towards the University.

Locked in his laboratory, Abraham Van Helsing was positively brooding. He had just kidnapped two children, and wasn't in the slightest sorry for it. However, he had already tried to kill them twice, with no success. He had hated himself to no end for the past two days, for his lack of determination, but he was sure tonight he would succeed where he had failed before.

He growled in exasperation when he heard a very insistent knocking on the door.

"What are you doing here, Mrs. Grayson?" he asked with apprehension, eyeing the woman with the hardest stare he possessed, in the futile hope she would go away and leave him again to his cherished, lugubrious musings.

Mina smiled at him kindly. "I needed to talk with you alone."

"Does Alexander know you are with me?"

"No."

Van Helsing drew an annoyed breath. "Let's go home. I'll accompany you," he said authoritatively, grabbing her arm to drag her towards the exit.

Mina resisted, but to no avail. They were already in the corridor, when at last she pleaded, "Professor, I want to help my husband, but I need to know the truth!"

Van Helsing huffed. "People always say that, and then they cannot handle the truth."

"I will not rest until you have told me everything! Please, Professor, don't send me away! I'm doing this just for Alexander's sake! I'm very worried for him!"

Van Helsing stopped his mad dash towards the door at the end of the corridor. Still gripping her arm, he turned to look at her ponderingly. "Are you sure? Because there is no going back from here…," he admonished.

Mina stared back at him with a serious look. "I'm sure. There is no going back since I married Alexander."

"That much is true," Van Helsing miserably recognized. He released her arm and passed a hand through his hair. He hadn't been a bit happy with Alexander's new married life, but the only thing that could be done now, under the not ideal circumstances, was to give Mina some sort of scientific explanation, with which she could entertain her mind for a while.

He was sure things were going to end in utter disaster with a prying wife added to the already explosive mix that had become their lives, and once more, he had to control the insuppressible urge to strangle Alexander, for all his recklessness. The doctor loved very well laid plans, and the unpredictable vampire had lately been doing everything conceivable to subvert the careful calculations of his precise mind, in regard to the destruction of the Order. His latest rendition of a jealous schoolboy in love, had been particularly unnerving for the professor.

He finally nodded, staring at Mina in the eyes with a calculating expression. "Very well, then. Let's go back inside. There are some blood samples I need to show you."

Mina had stayed two hours locked in the laboratory with the doctor, listening attentively to his explanations and the advances they had made with the serum. More than once, Mina's face had blanched at the implications of the words van Helsing was spitting out, but she had been disposed to believe in the professor's explanation of Alexander's terrible allergy to sunlight, which was apparently a simple side effect of his strange blood type, even if it all appeared to her quite fantastic.

By the end of the lecture, the professor had even managed to show a bit of excitement at having at last somebody else with whom to talk about the incredible medical condition of his favorite patient. He had told her everything that could possibly have a plausible medical justification, and had hoped that it would suffice for the annoying, inquiring mind in front of him. He had left purposefully out the topic of her husband's monstrous feeding habits, because he knew not even a divine intervention would have made him capable of justifying that in a purely scientific fashion.

Finally, Mina had lowered her head, shaking like a leaf, and had started crying disconsolately. Van Helsing had suddenly felt at a loss as to how to control her very distressing attitude. "Mrs. Grayson, if I had known you'd react like a child, I wouldn't have said anything to you!" he gruffly exclaimed. "It's not becoming of an accomplished medical student of mine, to have such an emotional outburst."

"Yes, Professor," she managed to say between one tear and the other, ineffectually trying to wipe her eyes with a completely drenched handkerchief. Van Helsing had offered her his own, with an aggravated suspire.

"Here, Mrs. Grayson. And please, put a stop to this spectacle. You will be utterly dehydrated by the time you reach your house."

Mina looked up at the doctor with a bewildered expression. The enormity of what she had done suddenly dawned on her. She had disobeyed her husband, and had extracted a secret she had no business in knowing, a secret Alexander hadn't wished her to know. She bitterly regretted her stubbornness. "I'm not sure I can go back to him, now," she confessed in a small voice. "I'm really scared."

It was Van Helsing's turn to panic. He was sure Grayson would kill him, if he were to let her escape.

"Mrs. Grayson, must I remind you that, as Alexander's wife, you are now lawfully his? Do you think your husband will be inclined to let you go, if you so wish?" The threat was evident in the doctor's voice.

Mina's face blanched further. The doctor was right: Alexander hadn't been coy in implementing any method at his disposal, to make her his wife. It would stand to reason that now he would never let her leave. She would just have to be brave and return to Carfax, hoping that her husband wouldn't be too enraged by her temporary disappearance, and then she would have to learn to live with that new, terrifying creature whose strange condition the doctor had just explained to her.

Yesterday's sweet lovemaking seemed just a distant memory now, and her heart clenched with fear at the thought of being imprisoned with Alexander for the years to come. She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn't help the horror that was taking hold of her mind. She felt pity for his condition, but was also mortally afraid of him now, even more than on the first terrible night she had spent with him.

Alexander Grayson was all a new person to her, a person with a terrible secret that he had gone to lengths to keep occult from her. She couldn't imagine how he would react once he discovered her deception. "I cannot do it," she confessed at last to Van Helsing.

"I don't even want to hear this nonsense. " Grabbing again her arm, he made her stand up. "You are his wife now: there is nowhere else to go."

"But, Professor…"

"Not another word: you promised me you would help your husband, so let's go and help him. He will need all your support for the trials ahead. His condition is far from cured, and he will need your help," he added with a calmer tone, in the hopes that appealing to her wifely duties would do the trick.

Mina looked in horrified fascination at the various blood samples they had examined together. She took a bottle in her hand, a serious expression on her face. She looked at the professor with a miserable expression. "But I'm just afraid to go back now: he must be very upset with what I did to Mr. Renfield…"

"Well, you should have thought of that before going gallivanting through the streets of London, without your husband's permission, Mrs. Grayson."

"I know," she admitted guiltily, while starting to quietly sob again.

Van Helsing felt the urge to grab his hammer and kill once and for all the stubborn person in front of him. Only the distressing thought of the enraged widower stopped his hand from going to his medical suitcase. He opted for trying a different approach. "Mina, look at me, " he said calmly, urging her to sit down again with him, and taking one of her trembling hands onto his. "Do you wish to help your husband?"

The woman averted her eyes and brought the handkerchief to her mouth.

"Do you? This is a serious question." The doctor's gaze was implacable.

Mina sobbed and timidly nodded into the handkerchief.

"If you have left even a shred of tender feelings for him, you must go back. He loves you with all his heart, and you must help him defeat his disease." He squeezed her hand encouragingly and waited for an answer.

At last the woman looked up, and asked, "Will you come with me?"

The doctor drew a relieved breath. "Of course, of course," he patted her hand, "I will accompany you back, and you'll see that Alexander will be understanding." Van Helsing was not believing a single word he was saying. "Come, you'll see everything will be fine." Shaking his head, the doctor stood up and, taking her again by the arm, walked towards the main stairs of the building with the distressed woman. Trembling uncontrollably, Mina let herself be guided to the carriage that would transport her back to Carfax.

While Doctor Van Helsing had been forced to play caretaker and spiritual counselor to Grayson's wife for the better part of the morning, Renfield hadn't had a better time of it himself. With Dr. Murray's arrival, Mina's ruse had soon been discovered, and the lawyer had been forced to spend a considerable part of his energies scouring meticulously every inch of the hospital, in the vain hope to retrieve the runaway wife, before her husband would get overly suspicious with the delay. He didn't ventured outside, nor he had the foresight of looking for Van Helsing: after all, the University was quite distant, and he hadn't given Dr. Murray the time to explain about the secret passage, before starting his mad search around the facility.

After three unfruitful hours, he surrendered himself to the inevitable, and took the way back home, with a foreboding presentment that his friend wouldn't be able to take the news with any modicum of composure.

Unfortunately, Alexander hadn't disappointed the lawyer's previsions.

"That's just not possible! I cannot believe she managed to best you!" Grayson looked scornfully at his lawyer, while exponentially raising his voice with each syllable.

Renfield had maintained the same contrite expression for the last half an hour. "She is a resourceful woman," he stated with gloominess, staring at nobody in particular.

"Don't praise her: she has openly disobeyed me, and now she may be in the hands of the Order. And I don't want you to forget that this has all been your fault!"

Reinfeld imperceptibly moved his head in assent. After a few minutes of silence, in a sudden act of bravery, he then cleared his throat, and tried to reason with the exagitated man, "Sir, I don't think the Order has had anything to do with it. They still don't know your identity, and there is no reason why they should have made such a move against a prospective member."

"Do you forget about their last attempt? I had to tear four men apart to save her life!"

"That was just Lord Davenport's doing. It was a personal vendetta."

"Nonsense!"

"Sir, I'm sorry to say you're being irrational on this matter: Mrs. Grayson will be in danger, but not before they discover who you are. I'll say that for now the both of you are safe, and maybe she has just gone to visit some friend of hers."

"Why the deception, then? Why?!" Grayson flung to the floor the liquor bottle he was holding. "No, Renfield, something horrible has happened, and again I haven't been able to save her! I have lost her all over again! I have lost her," he added at last in a mournful tone, while dropping on his knees in front of the fireplace and grabbing his hair in desperation.

During the whole time, Renfield had kept discreet watch by the main window, and finally saw a carriage approaching. "Sir, it's Dr. Van Helsing and Mrs. Grayson. They are here: she must have just gone to visit him." A profound relief could be appreciated on the lawyer's face, accompanied by a brilliant smile.

The same couldn't be said for Alexander: with a distraught rumble, he jumped back up and was at the door in few long strides.

Mina hadn't had the time to step foot into the hall, when a hand snatched at her. She was lifted by two powerful arms and carried away from Renfield and Van Helsing's indistinct voices of protest. She had the impression to be hurled downstairs, through a flight of stairs, towards the basement. Terror paralyzed her for interminable instants, and then she heard the growl coming from her husband, "One way or another, you'll learn to obey me, Mina!"


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter XIII

"I have spent all morning trying to convince your wife that you are a perfectly normal person, and you do this!" Van Helsing was fuming and hadn't any qualms about letting Grayson have a piece of his mind.

"This isn't any of your business!"

"That's where you're wrong. It is my business, because I will not let you ruin our plan!"

Alexander growled in his face. "The plan, the plan, the accursed plan of yours has nothing to do with my wife!"

"You had no business getting married! It was most imprudent of you!"

"Let me alone, I don't need your advices!"

Still, Van Helsing seemed relentless. "I had to watch you get the biggest crush in the history of humankind, force that woman to marry you, have your jealous temper tantrums, and when finally I managed to exert a little control on the excitable mind of that wife of yours, you go and chain her in the basement!"

Grayson lunged himself at the doctor and grasped him by the throat, a maniacal grin on his face. "Leave this house now, Doctor, for your own good," he dangerously whispered in his ear.

Van Helsing tried desperately to free himself from the choke-hold the vampire was maintaining on him, until he found himself thrown to the other end of the room. He crashed against the wall and eyed Grayson in complete bewilderment from the floor. "I'm leaving, don't worry, I'm leaving," he stated while massaging his bruised neck. "But remember this: that woman is dangerous; the more people know about us, the more we are at risk. I did what was in my power to control her, but now you need to pull yourself together: thanks to me, she's good and ready to believe whatever thing that happens to have a slight resemblance to a scientific truth, so use your charms, and keep your woman under control!"

Alexander snickered loudly. "It's what I'm doing right now, am I not?"

"You are just scaring her to death!"

"Let me do my job, and you go do yours. I'm still waiting for the next dose of the vaccine: is it ready?" he asked contemptuously.

Van Helsing eyed him with disgust. "I'll have it by tomorrow," he answered, while readjusting his disheveled shirt and approaching the door.

"And another thing," Alexander shouted at the doctor without turning, "Lord Browing's children's are still missing. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

"Van Helsing stopped abruptly by the door. "What makes you think that I should know anything about his children?" he asked, an offended tone evident in his words.

Alexander snickered. "Nothing, nothing. Just making sure you were not doing anything foolish on your own too, to ruin those so cherished, well laid plans of yours."

The sarcasm in his tone wounded feebly the doctor's pride. His expression hardened. "You don't have to worry for me. Go sort out that wife of yours, instead." He opened the door in a rush and slammed it behind him.

His walk back home was permeated with the clear conviction that doom was imminent, for all the parties involved, including himself. Of one thing, however, he had become suddenly sure by the time he reached his house: he would never be capable of killing the two children of his mortal enemy. His decades of planning had been for nothing, if revenge couldn't be complete: he had utterly failed. Van Helsing shook his head and penetrated that forsaken abode that he called his home. Tomorrow he would release them, he promised solemnly to himself, before going to bed and closing his eyes, a fitful sleep, full of regrets, awaiting him.

Mina had spent hours now chained to the walls in a dark cell, and her mind was frantic with terror. She had tried to calm herself down, but her heart refused to slow down, and her body kept shaking from the cold: Alexander had torn her clothes off and had left her just in her undergarments, before imprisoning his wife in that forsaken place. She had fought with all her forces against that crazed animal that happened to be her husband, but two well-placed strikes to her face had taken care for good of her fleeting act of rebellion. Now her left eye and lips were very sore, albeit she reckoned that was the least of her troubles, under the present circumstances. The shackles at both sides of her head were chafing the skin of her delicate wrists, but she couldn't stop pulling at them in the futile hope to free herself.

After an interminable time, she heard a rattling of keys, and her mind lifted with sudden hope. She sighed in renewed panic when she realized it was Alexander, approaching her with a forbidding expression on his face, and a lamp in his hands, which he carefully deposited on a nearby table.

He stood in front of her and asked, in a deceptively soft voice, "Why are you doing this to me?" His face was distraught, and his look disapproving.

Mina started sobbing without control. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she kept repeating between cries, her mind incapable of finding more cogent words.

"Why did you disobey me?" he moved a hand to caress her exposed body. He didn't lift his gaze to her eyes, and kept slowly stroking the expanse of flesh of her arms and shoulders, as if transfixed by the translucid whiteness of that skin.

Mina sensed the electric touch like a shock to her nerves. She trembled anew with incontrollable fright. "Please, forgive, me," she murmured, her voice choked. The man that was touching her with proprietary hands, felt like a terrible stranger and a familiar presence at once, one she had grown accustomed to. She was unable to make up her mind if to draw back from those touches, or to accept the caresses that were like a warm balm for her icing body.

Alexander looked up at her with a hurt expression in his eyes. "I love you, Ilona, with all my heart," he stated, his voice deep and strong.

Mina couldn't suppress her shivering. His penetrating look shook her innermost fibers with a fresh wave of terror. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I will do whatever you want. Please, release me!"

Alexander's hand had wandered between her legs, and was now stroking the inside of her thighs. "Not yet," he whispered.

Mina's sobs became louder. "Please, forgive me, Alexander!"

"We could have a wonderful life together," he stated with a sad stare and a shake of his head. "Why are you resisting me?"

His question rang vaguely deranged to Mina, and more heart-shattering for it. "I won't do it again. I'm sorry."

"But you need to learn how to behave. Will you?" He lifted her chin with one hand, so that their eyes could meet.

"Yes, I promise you," Mina said in haste, horrified by the prospect of what could happen to her in case of a different answer. She drew a heavy breath when Alexander's hand tore at the fabric of her scant garments and started massaging her private parts. Working a knee between her legs, he moved closer to her, his body flush with hers, and his warmth breath on her neck, taking away some of the chill that was seeping through the humid walls onto her skin. Mina unconsciously moved her body against Alexander. She had felt so alone for so long in the horrifying cell, and that contact became something precious, cherished suddenly by her disconcerted heart.

The man then unbuttoned his trousers and lifted her legs at his sides with both his arms, holding them firmly separated. With the first penetration, Mina's whole body shook with the force of the push. A grimace of pain painted her face when her bruised left side was grazed with force by Alexander's pulling. The whimper that escaped her lips went unnoticed by the man.

"You are my life, Ilona. You belong to me, understand that," he whispered in her ear, moving rhythmically the woman's unresisting body up and down over his.

Alexander closed his eyes, as a wave a passion overcame him. Forcing out a satisfied growl, at last he withdrew from his wife and took a few steps back. He was still breathing heavily, and looked at the woman with an uncertain expression. His Ilona was even more beautiful today, with her delicate face streaked by tears. She met his gaze and implored, "Don't leave me here, Alexander. I'm cold."

The man moved closer again."Ilona, I'm here." He held her flush against his chest.

Still trembling, she said, "Please, forgive me."

Alexander unfastened the shackles and took the woman in his arms. "I'm here. I will always be here."

After placing her carefully on the bed in her chambers, he called for some warm water, alcohol and cloths, and tended all night to his wife's wounds. A large bruise had formed below her left eye, her lip was cut, and her wrists were bloody and marred with dark stains with the efforts she had made earlier to escape. Removing reverently the rest of her clothes, Alexander saw another purplish stain on her pristine skin, just below her left breast, and hurried to bandage it properly. He had needed to ask her to sit up on the bed to effectively run the piece of cloth around her waist, and when he tightened it, Mina had screamed in renewed pain. Alexander had held her close to his chest, until the pitiful whimpers had quietened.

"Thank you," she had said afterwards, while being guided again to lie on the bed by a pair of strong, warm, competent hands. She shivered all over again because of that comforting touch, which she desperately tried to reconcile with the harsh strikes from before. With a shaky voice, she said, "I was only trying to find out more about your illness. I wanted to help you."

"But you lied to me." Alexander's voice was stern and cold again.

She lowered her gaze. "I won't do it again. Please, believe me," she murmured in apprehension.

The man stared at her fixedly. "I will, Ilona." He passed a cloth on her forehead.

She stared at him with gratitude, before closing her eyes in exhaustion.

On the morning, she found Alexander still with her, ensconced in an armchair by the bed and with a pensive expression on his face, his eyes fixed vacuously on some indeterminate point on her curtains. She made to move, but a shooting pain on the left side of her body, paralyzed her for a moment and made her whimper. Alexander hastily turned and was leaning over her in a moment. "Don't move, my love," he said with worry. "You have some bruised ribs, remember?"

His voice had a trembling timbre, that Mina hadn't noticed before. She obeyed and lied again down, helped by her husband. "You didn't leave," she observed, a timid smile directed at Alexander.

He leaned over her and grasped her bandaged wrist. "You are mine, Ilona, and you will always be mine. Do you understand?"

Mina nodded in assent. "I will always be yours."


End file.
